About 10,000 hotel workers in the U.S. began a multiday walkout in several cities on Sunday after contract negotiations with hotel operators such as Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels stalled, the Unite Here union said. Unite Here, which represents workers at hotels, casinos and airports across the United States and Canada, said thousands of workers at 24 hotels were walking out in several major travel destinations, including San Francisco and San Diego in California, Honolulu in Hawaii, Boston, Seattle and Greenwich, Connecticut, with workers in other cities poised to join the strike as Labor Day weekend progresses.
The walkout comes as the industry faces a 9% increase in domestic travel over Labor Day weekend compared to last year, according to booking data from AAA. “Strikes have also been authorized and could begin at any time” in Baltimore, New Haven, Oakland and Providence, the union said in a statement, as hotel workers and operators struggle to reach a deal on wages and roll back pandemic-era job cuts.
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Hotel workers are feeling overwhelmed because management often assigns three staffers to do the work of four, the union says, leading to undue stress and a focus on speed over service.
“Since COVID, they expect us to provide five-star service with three-star staff,” the union said, citing a staffer at Marriott’s Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
Hotel cleaners in Baltimore are fighting to raise their wages to $20 an hour from the current $16.20. In Boston, where cleaners make $28 an hour, the union is seeking a $10-an-hour increase over the next four years.
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Hilton and Hyatt said they remain committed to negotiating fair deals with unions. Hyatt has contingency plans to minimize the impact on hotel operations from potential strike activity, Michael D’Angelo, the luxury hotel chain’s head of labor relations, said in a statement.
The walkouts come as 40,000 Unite Here hotel workers in 20 cities face contracts that are set to expire this year. Negotiations for a new four-year contract have been underway since May, and about 15,000 of those workers have authorized strikes in 12 markets.
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“We will not accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by reducing services to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers,” said Unite Here President Gwen Mills, who is demanding a better deal.
The union has urged travelers to cancel their stays if workers are on strike, and to ask for refunds without penalty. Unite Here workers won record contracts in 2023 in Los Angeles after a rolling strike, and in Detroit after a 47-day strike.
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