CHICAGO — Hundreds of hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 1, walked out of some of the most famous hotels here Oct. 9, going on strike just hours before the start of the Chicago Marathon, a busy time of the year for local hotels and restaurants.
Workers at the Millennium Hotel Knickerbocker Chicago, Palmer House, Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, Waldorf Astoria Chicago, Westin Chicago River North and Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago had all walked out.
The union represents room attendants, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers and more at 46 hotels in the city. Most of the contracts covering around 7,000 hotel workers expired as of Aug. 31, the union said, and workers voted last month by 85% to authorize a strike.
“This strike is not about the pay, it’s about the exploitation, making us do so much work in so little time,” Mariela Bernal told the Militant. Bernal, a housekeeper at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago, has worked there for three years.
“The bosses are making people with low seniority work seven days a week. Sometimes we have to clean all the rooms on two or three floors, at least 16 rooms, sometimes with people still in them! Our cleaning supplies are delivered late in the day, but we are still expected to get the rooms cleaned in eight hours,” she said.
“When I started, I was 118th on the schedule, now we’ve only got 92 ladies working,” Juana Sanchez, a housekeeper at the Sheraton Grand, told the Chicago Tribune. “The work that is for two ladies, there’s only one lady doing it.”
As a single mom, 46-year-old Sanchez is particularly hurt by the intense workload and low pay. “Right now, I owe over $40,000,” she said. “When I get home, I don’t have the same quality time that I get with my kids. I get tired, and I just want to get some rest.”
“I work too hard to live like this,” LaTonya Jennings, a room attendant at the Hilton McCormick Place, told CBS News, “I’m tired of robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Since each hotel has a different union contract, they are being negotiated separately.