SAN FRANCISCO — More than 2,000 hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 2, went on a three-day strike here Sept. 1, part of a nationwide fight against moves by hotel chains Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton to increase workloads while cutting schedules, as well as raise workers’ cost for health care.
The union reports that 25 hotels in six states, from Maryland to Hawaii, went on rolling strikes over the Labor Day weekend, with over 10,000 workers involved — almost half in Hawaii alone. Another 5,000 union members nationwide so far have voted to authorize strikes.
Workers at five hotels here mounted 24-hour pickets and hosted a Labor Day rally and march in downtown San Francisco Sept. 2, which drew over 1,000 unionists and supporters and expanded their picket lines.
It’s a fight to defend what Local 2 has won over years, strikers told the Militant. A strike against Marriott hotels here in 2018, part of a nationwide battle, lasted 62 days and won over $4 in hourly wage increases.
Some workers on the picket line said they are veterans of as many as four different strikes.
Cuts in hours are making it hard for many workers to keep their health care benefits, pickets told the Militant outside the Westin St. Francis. Now the companies are demanding further deductions from their already short checks. “It’s a big fight,” Teo Mercedes, a housekeeper, told the Militant. “They want us to pay hundreds more for medical care.”
“They aren’t hiring enough people. They ask workers to work double shifts and to work faster to make up the difference,” cafe worker Zelphia Connor said. “I tell them no.”
“I’m tired of the unfair workloads,” Flor Salazar, a telephone operator at the hotel for 48 years, told the media. “Before, there was up to five of us per shift. Now, there’s only me during the morning shift handling all the phone call requests from within and outside the hotel.”
Despite bosses’ talk about their fear of falling bookings due to rising prices and the social crisis hitting workers today, the fact is the hotel chains are raking in record profits. But for hotel workers, the result is that things are getting worse. Short hours force many to seek a second or third job to try and put together enough to live on and raise a family. New workers often quit because the lousy pay for short hours is unsustainable.
A retiree on the picket line, Duc Nguyen, said he gets a pension from the union and medical care as well. But the hotels want to cut back what they pay into the retiree fund. The strike “is basic,” he said. “Without us they can’t run the hotels.”
Hotel workers in Boston walk off the job as contract expires
BY WILLIE COTTON
BOSTON — The annual Greater Boston Labor Council’s Labor Day breakfast here was transformed into an expanded picket line and rally for UNITE HERE Local 26 after hotel workers walked off the job Sept. 1 as their contract expired. They voted by 99% to go out on strike, demanding wage increases, improved benefits, more staffing and better safety measures on the job.
The nearly 900 workers at the four struck hotels in Boston are part of 4,500 union members in the area that voted to authorize a strike.
“I’m out here for respect. We need the money, but we also need the respect,” Yves Devaris, who has worked at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza for 38 years, told the Militant.
“The work is too much,” said Paula DeRosa, a housekeeper at the hotel for 22 years. Staffing levels at the hotels are still below COVID pandemic levels, but room occupancy rates have fully recovered, and the hotels’ profits have soared.
“All they care about is about how much money they can squeeze out of us. They don’t care about the guests, or the hotel itself, and especially not about us,” Stefica Trtanj, a worker at Hilton Boston Logan Airport, said.
Ray Chin, who has worked at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza for eight years, said that he needs to look for a second job. “The main struggle is for more money.” Chin lives with his brother so the two of them can make ends meet.
‘Respect our work!’ Baltimore UNITE HERE workers demand
BY JAMES HARRIS
BALTIMORE — “We work, we sweat, put a raise on my check!” and “Respect our work!” chanted UNITE HERE Local 7 members as they joined in the nationwide strike Sept. 2. They punched out at 9 a.m. and joined the picket line in front of the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor. Over 200 workers struck, keeping their picket line up throughout the day. Their supporters included family members, a drumroll marching band and a drill team, as well as supporters from other area unions.
Workers said they are living paycheck to paycheck on wages that begin at $16.20 an hour. They are demanding higher wages, better conditions and more staffing. “Going on strike is hard, but not nearly as hard as trying to get by on what we’re getting paid,” said Jerome Roberts, a dishwasher.
A Hilton spokesperson said the company is committed to negotiating in good faith.
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