Workers at hotels in Boston, San Diego and New Haven, Conn., are striking Thursday to demand higher pay and more staff.
Over 1,250 hotel workers, including housekeepers, cooks and doormen at popular hotels including the W Boston, Omni New Haven and Hilton San Diego Bayfront, have temporarily walked off the job as they seek new contracts.
“Hotel workers across the U.S. are ready to do whatever it takes to get the hotel industry back on track,” Unite Here International President Gwen Mills said in a statement. “Too many hotel workers have to work multiple jobs because their wages aren’t enough to survive in the cities where they welcome travelers, and staffing and service cuts have hurt guests and made hotel jobs more painful than ever.”
Striking 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.
According to Unite Here, staffing per occupied room fell 13% from 2019 to 2022.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association, which represents over 32,000 lodging property members including many popular hotel chains in the United States, told Spectrum News it does not participate in or comment on its members’ collective bargaining negotiations.
The union representing the workers said picket lines could operate outside the struck hotels around the clock. The strikes in Boston are expected to last three days. San Diego’s have been ongoing since Sept. 1. The length of the New Haven strikes has not been determined.
The newest action follows a larger strike with over 10,000 hotel workers over Labor Day weekend in Boston, Honolulu, San Francisco, Seattle and other cities.
Unite Here says strikes have been authorized and could begin at any time in Baltimore, Md.; Greenwich, Conn.; Honolulu; Kauai, Hawaii; Oakland; Providence, R.I.,; Sacramento, Calif.; San Francisco; San Jose, Calif.; and Seattle.
In April, on International Worker’s Day, thousands of hotel staff across the country protested Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and other hotels in 18 cities, including Honolulu, Miami, Orlando, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
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.
The striking workers are hoping to replicate the record contracts won last year in Los Angeles, following a strike over the 4th of July holiday, and in Detroit, following a 47-strike of casinos.