AARP Hearing Center
About 840 hotel workers are back on the job after a hotel strike that launched over the Labor Day weekend affected three popular hotel chains. But more than 9,300 workers remain on strike. The strike by workers including housekeepers and front desk clerks at Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott properties began Sept. 1 and affected 25 hotels in nine cities. Additional cities could be added.
Contracts between Unite Here and the U.S. hotels, according to USA Today, expired in August after weeks of negotiations for higher wages and fair staffing and workloads being at the top of the group’s demands.
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“This fight is fundamentally about respect,” says Gwen Mills, international president of Unite Here, which represents the striking housekeepers and other hospitality workers. “Workers have stuck with these hotels through thick and thin, through COVID, and now they feel like they’re getting left behind — that their wages are disrespectful, that their workloads are disrespectful.”
As many as 10,200 hotel workers at 25 hotels, according to CNN, walked off the job in cities such as Baltimore — where workers went on strike Sept. 2 — Boston; Greenwich, Connecticut; Honolulu; Kauai, Hawai‘i; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose, California; and Seattle. The strikes were set to last one to three days, according to the Associated Press, and could spread to other cities, including New Haven, Connecticut; Oakland, California; and Providence, Rhode Island.
If you are traveling to any of these hotels, you should prepare for disruptions such as reduced food and beverage services, lack of cleaning services, and picket lines at hotel entrances.
“Our colleagues are the heart of our business, and Hyatt has a long history of cooperation with the unions that represent our employees, including Unite Here,” said Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt’s head of labor relations in the Americas, to AARP in a statement prior to the strike. On Sept. 2, the Associated Press reported that D’Angelo said, “We are disappointed that Unite Here has chosen to strike while Hyatt remains willing to negotiate.”
According to the Associated Press, a Hilton spokesperson said the chain remains “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.”
