SAN FRANCISCO — Some 2,500 striking hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 2, are fighting to defend health coverage won in past contract battles. As the strike enters its 13th week it’s the longest-ever hotel strike here, and the workers are winning solidarity. Over 1,000 unionists rallied downtown Dec. 11.
Kristie Rivera, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA Council 11, told the Militant that members of the union refuse to stay at the struck hotels. Flight attendants at United Airlines are in the middle of a contract fight themselves. “Our labor is connected. We work together with UNITE HERE at the airports and in the flight kitchens,” Rivera said. “Solidarity is very valuable.”
Strikers have begun to picket the loading docks of the six struck hotels and report Teamsters truck drivers are turning away.
UNITE HERE Local 5 in Waikiki and Oahu, Hawaii, organized a rally in solidarity with Local 2. They just ended a strike over the same issues. Workers in Local 8 at the Westin Hotel in Seattle and workers from the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council who work at the New York Hilton have both sent messages of support.
The Northern California Carpenters Regional Council moved its annual Moose Feed luncheon from the struck San Francisco Hilton Union Square in solidarity.
The AFL-CIO nationally is calling on unions to support the strikers and is circulating a petition for workers to sign.
“Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott are trying to phase out the union healthcare that generations of San Francisco hotel workers have fought for and won. That’s unacceptable,” a petition on UNITE HERE’s website says.
Hotels currently pay into a health care fund for union workers, who don’t pay anything until they use it. It’s $10 a month for family coverage, with a cap on prescription costs. Bosses want to take new hires out of that plan.
Local 2 is building a demonstration for Jan. 13 outside the Westin St. Francis Hotel. When the union asked JP Morgan to move its 2025 Healthcare Conference from the struck hotel, the bankers refused. “Health care profiteers impoverish working people and hurt patients,” the union says in a flyer calling for the march and rally.
Messages and contributions can be sent to UNITE HERE Local 2, 209 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102. The local’s phone number is (415) 864-8770 x778, fax (415) 864-4158. Contribute online at https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/support-local-2-hotel-workers.
Workers in the Bay Area are urged to visit the picket lines and contribute to the strike fund at the collection boxes in the picket tents.