EMERYVILLE, Calif. — The spirited strike of Marriott workers is in its fourth week at hotels in Boston, Detroit, Honolulu, San Diego and the Bay Area. “One job should be enough!” is their most popular chant. Low wages mean many workers have to work two or three jobs to get by. Other key issues include guaranteed hours, job security and affordable health care.
Hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE, joined picketing and a solidarity rally of hundreds of workers Oct. 24, during a three-day strike at a University of California San Francisco medical complex. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in the U.C. system have been without a contract since December.
“When we got to the medical workers picket line, big cheers went up,” Edgar Bayes, a housekeeper at the Oakland Marriott City Center hotel, told the Militant. The next day some 200 AFSCME strikers converged on the U.C. administration offices in Oakland across from the Marriott and joined the hotel workers picket line.
Strikers from the Oakland Marriott also picketed the nonunion Courtyard by Marriott here, above photo, Oct. 27,. in response to Marriott bosses’ attempts to recruit workers to serve as strikebreakers.