Major hotel strike spreads across U.S. on Labor Day weekend

Thousands of hotel workers in major cities across the country walked off the job Sunday morning in a strike wave expected to quickly reach other U.S. cities.

The initial strikes, which involve mostly Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt properties, will last three days. More than 10,000 workers walked out at hotels in San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Honolulu, Kauai, Boston, Seattle and Greenwich, Connecticut, early in the day. The strikes could spread later Sunday or Monday to other communities, including New Haven, Connecticut; Baltimore; and Oakland, California.

The work stoppage threatens to cause disruptions on a busy holiday weekend. The Transportation Security Administration has said it expects this year to have the busiest Labor Day travel period on record.

As of Sunday morning, the strikes had affected 24 properties with more than 23,000 rooms, according to Unite Here, a national hospitality union with over 275,000 members, the majority of them women and people of color.

The union, which suffered major losses in membership during the height of the pandemic, says its workers are striking for higher pay, increased staffing and reduced workloads. It has accused hotels of using covid-era lockdowns as a pretext to permanently cut costs by axing employees and suspending guest services. As a result, the union says, members lost income and work, and those who remain endure “painful” working conditions.

“I’m on strike because I need higher wages,” Daniela Campusano, a housekeeper at Hilton’s Hampton Inn & Homewood Suites in Boston’s Seaport district, said in a statement Sunday. “I currently have two jobs, and I work about 65 hours a week. One job should be enough.”

Unite Here is asking guests with reservations at hotels with striking workers to “cancel your stay immediately” and “demand a refund without a cancellation fee.”

Hotel companies say they’re trying to cooperate with union members.

Michael D’Angelo, a Hyatt spokesperson, said in a statement that the company “has a long history of cooperation with the unions that represent our employees” and is “disappointed that UNITE HERE has chosen to strike while Hyatt remains willing to negotiate.”

The hotels have plans in place to “minimize impact on hotel operations” related to the strikes, D’Angelo said.

Hilton said it “makes every effort to maintain a cooperative and productive relationship” with the union, adding that the chain is “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.”

Marriott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some 15,000 union members in 12 cities voted in August to authorize strikes, which could trigger the largest hotel strike in U.S. history if workers in more cities join. Union contracts covering housekeepers, front desk attendants, bellhops, restaurant waitstaff, cooks, bartenders and other workers in each of the cities expired in the weeks leading up to the strike, and the companies and union remained at an impasse early Sunday in contract negotiations.

“We’re on strike because the hotel industry has gotten off track,” Gwen Mills, Unite Here’s president, said in a statement Sunday morning. “Workers aren’t making enough to support their families. Many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to, and painful workloads are breaking their bodies.”

The union hopes to build on gains won in strikes and strike threats in 2023. Last summer, thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles and the surrounding area participated in rolling strikes, winning higher wages and more equitable workload guarantees. And Detroit casino workers won an average 18 percent immediate pay raise and reduced workloads after a 47-day strike. In Nevada, the union’s powerful local won the biggest gains in close to 90 years for some 40,000 hospitality workers, after a mere strike threat.

Many U.S. hotels have kept covid-era cuts in place, with lower staffing, less frequent housekeeping, and fewer food and drink options, according to the union. Hotel staffing per occupied room fell by 13 percent from 2019 to 2022, it says.

Christian Carbajal, a 15-year employee at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, is among the workers on strike Sunday. During the pandemic, the hotel shuttered Carbajal’s room-service department, transferring him to a position in the hotel’s grab-and-go market. Without the room-service tips, Carbajal says, he earns about $800 less a month.

The pay cut has forced him, his wife and two kids to move in with three other family members in a house farther from the hotel, he said. He and his wife have also adopted alternating work schedules – he at night and she during the day – to avoid child-care expenses.

“We’re being pushed to go on strike because we’re not being given fair pay,” Carbajal, who makes $23 an hour, told The Washington Post before the strike action began. “It’s bad that we’ve had to go this far to get better working conditions, to feel appreciated as someone with so many years of service.”