Workers, organised by hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE, strategically went on strike during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

OVER 10,000 hotel workers went on strike early Sunday (September 1) morning across the United States in pursuit of fair wages, better working conditions, and more staff to help. As working people across the United States are increasingly squeezed economically, hotel workers are coming together on the picket line under the slogan “one job should be enough!”

Workers are on strike at hotels across 9 different cities in the US, including Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, Greenwich. Workers are also striking hotels in Honolulu and Kauai in Hawai’i. On Monday morning, 200 more hotel workers walked off the job in Baltimore. 

Workers are striking some of the largest hotel chains in the country, including Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott. Hotels have made record profits in recent years and have been able to charge record high rates for rooms. 

But the testimonies of hotel workers indicate that they are not seeing the positive effects of a booming business. Hotels have largely chosen to maintain COVID-era staffing cuts, says the union, which cites that hotel staffing per occupied room was decreased by 13 per cent  from 2019 to 2022.

“I walked out today because we just cannot keep working paycheck to paycheck, not able to pay our bills,” said Jerome Roberts, a dishwasher at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, who walked off the job the morning of Labor Day. “Going on strike is hard, but not nearly as hard as trying to get by on what we are getting paid. We told the bosses in our negotiations how much we are struggling right now but they didn’t care. We are on strike to make them pay.”

Workers are demanding higher wages, better staffing numbers and a fairer workload, a reversal of COVID-era staffing and guest services cuts. 

“I cannot even see my kids right now. I work 70 to 80 hours a week for me to survive,” said Alfredo Amado, a dishwasher at Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston, in an interview with On The Line. “But I have to do it, (to) be able to pay the bills.”

“We’re here striking these hotels because we think they’re not (taking) us (seriously),” Amado continued. “We’ve been bargaining the contract with them since April, they don’t do anything yet, they don’t sign our contract.”

About striking on one of the busiest holiday weekends in the country, Gwen Mills, International President of UNITE HERE, said “This Labor Day, hotel workers across the US are celebrating Labor Day by fighting for raises, fair workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era service and staffing cuts.”

“We wouldn’t have a day to rest, relax, and enjoy the fruits of the labor movement if our union predecessors hadn’t stood up to fight for them -- but that fight’s not over,” she said. 

Workers are urging guests to not utilise the services of hotels where workers are out on strike. The union will possibly expand the strike to several other cities depending on the response they receive from industry bosses, potentially striking hotels in Oakland, California, Providence, Rhode Island, and New Haven, Connecticut.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch