ARLINGTON, Va. — Hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 25, rallied and marched to the four Hilton hotels here Oct. 17. They beat buckets and waved hand clappers and signs demanding “More in 24!” Their message to management: We need higher wages and better conditions.
These 550 union members are part of an ongoing nationwide fight against moves by hotel chains Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and others to increase their workloads, cut schedules, combine jobs and raise workers’ health care costs. More than 10,000 hotel workers have gone on strike since Sept. 2, with 4,400 still out. Additional strikes have been authorized by union members elsewhere.
Fellow Local 25 members from Washington, D.C., came down on a union bus. They waved placards of support showing the names of the hotel where they work signed by dozens of co-workers. In June union members at 20 D.C. hotels ratified a new contract that will bring housekeepers’ wages up to $33 an hour.
While no strike vote has been taken here, the union is prepared to do so. “We do want to apply pressure,” Benji Cannon, director of communications for Local 25, told the Militant.
Magdelin Marrero proudly waved a sign saying “Gaylord Hotel,” with names of over 50 workers on it — doormen, housekeepers and others from the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxion Hill, Maryland. Marrero said she and her co-workers drove an hour to get here. “I’m here today for the union. Without a union, hotels abuse the workers, they speak to the employees like we’re slaves,” she said. “The union has the power to win respect for the workers.”
“During the three years of the pandemic we got no raises. We want raises now!” Patricia Perez, a Hilton housekeeper with 37 years on the job, said. “There was never a strike here before. But with the costs of food, rent, gasoline — everything! — going up, we must have good raises now.”