Hotel workers across the country are planning protests Wednesday to call for increased wages and more staff.

Organized to coincide with International Worker’s Day, the protests will affect Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and other hotels in 18 cities, including Honolulu, Miami, Orlando, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

“This campaign is about the future of hospitality workers and the hospitality industry,” Unite Here International President Gwen Mills said in a statement. “we don’t want to see hotels go the way of the airline industry, where customers feel they’re constantly paying more and getting less.”

Protesting workers say many hotel chains enacted policies during the COVID pandemic that have left them understaffed. They say the end of automatic daily housekeeping, the removal of food and beverage options and the shuttering of VIP lounges has left the staff that remain with higher workloads.

Contracts that cover about 40,000 hotel workers at 230 hotels in 22 cities will expire this year or have already, according to Unite Here.

Wednesday’s protests are designed to secure the same kinds of wage and benefits gains as hotel workers in Los Angeles, after walking off the job during the Fourth of July holiday last summer.

“There’s never been a better time to be a hotel employee,” a spokesperson for the American Hotel and Lodging Assn. told Spectrum News.

As of February, AHLA said national average hotel wages were at a near-record high of $23.84 per hour; average hotel wages have increased 27.2% since the pandemic and rose more than 25% faster than average wages in the rest of the economy.