HOUSTON — Some 400 members of UNITE HERE Local 23 have been on strike at the city-owned Hilton Americas hotel here since Labor Day. They’ve now extended their strike, originally set for 10 days, through Oct. 12. One of their central demands is to win a $23-an-hour minimum wage.
“I’ve worked at this hotel for 21 years in housekeeping. I started at $6.50 an hour and now I make $16.50, that’s all,” striker Lourdes Herrera Fernandez told the Militant. That’s what most workers there make.
“We ain’t going away. That’s our message,” Willy Gonzalez, secretary treasurer of Local 23, told the Houston Chronicle. “We have the courage to continue it, we have the resources to fund it, and we’re in it to win it.”
“This is my first strike,” said Brian Garcia, a banquet cook at the Hilton for six months. “Before I started working here I worked nonunion jobs at a warehouse for $15 an hour and as a restaurant cook for $14 an hour. I wanted to work at the Hilton because there is a union.
“There are five cooks, including me, in the evening. We prepare food for as many as 3,000 people,” he said. And they get $16.50 an hour.
“I think it is really good out here because you are getting to know people you passed at the hotel and never talked to,” he added. “Some people are close to retirement. They’re fighting for the future generation.”
“UNITE HERE contracts at the George R. Brown convention center will expire soon,” said Ramon Garcia, who works for the union. “The banquet servers, dishwashers, cooks and warehouse workers there are members of Local 23. The janitors are members of the Service Employees International Union, and they’ve been walking the picket line with us.”
The hotel reported it had a revenue of $29.5 million in the first seven months of this year.
News about the strike is getting around and solidarity is growing. More than $15,500 has been raised on a GoFundMe page organized by Franchesca Caraballo, president of the Texas chapter of Local 23. Strikers report union members have joined their picket line from the Houston airport LSG Sky Chefs, Marriott Hotel, George Brown convention center and other locals. The Texas AFL-CIO has also backed the strike.
When this Militant worker-correspondent joined the picket line, I was asked by a passerby what it was about. When I told him the issues in the strike, he said, “I’m a member of the Steelworkers union and I’ll let my union know about this.”
Members of UNITE HERE Local 23 at LSG Sky Chefs at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport are gathering messages of solidarity and collecting contributions for the strikers. On Sept. 16 George Chalmers, a worker there, brought the first batch of messages to the picket line. He was handed a bullhorn and asked to read them in both English and Spanish.
Members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 111 at Bimbo bakery in Grand Prairie brought messages from their co-workers. They also read them over the bullhorn, adding, “We will also be sending a contribution of $160.”
“I’ve been at housekeeper for 19 years and active in the union for 16. They don’t want to negotiate a $23-an-hour minimum,” striker Jovanka Gonzalez said. “March with us. Walk the picket line. Join our struggle.”
Send messages and donations to UNITE HERE Local 23, 2506 Sutherland St., Houston TX 77023, or go to the “Support Hilton Americas Workers’ Fight for a Fair Contract!” GoFundMe page.
Hilda Cuzco contributed to this article.