More San Francisco Hotel Workers Join Ongoing U.S. Hotel Strikes
Strikes Have Roiled U.S. Hotel Industry for Over Six Weeks
San Francisco, Calif. – A month after 1,500 San Francisco hotel workers walked off the job, 120 additional workers at another San Francisco hotel have joined the strike. Nearly 5,200 Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Omni hotel workers are on strike across the U.S., and more strikes could begin soon. Strike activity has roiled the hotel industry for over six weeks, disrupting hotel operations and leading to guest complaints and demands for refunds.
Strikes in Boston, Honolulu, and San Francisco – including at the Marriott Union Square, where workers walked off the job today – will continue until workers have won their contracts, and some have already lasted for weeks. The strikes in Seattle are one-week strikes that will end in the early morning of October 19.
Workers are calling for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts. They are members of the UNITE HERE union, and they include housekeepers, front desk agents, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, bellhops, doormen, and more.
“I’m on strike to keep my medical benefits. I want to have a baby soon, and I know I need good medical insurance to make sure me and my baby are safe,” said Claudia Garrido, a telephone systems operator at the Marriott Union Square.
“Hotel workers are tired of waiting for affordable health care, good raises, and fair workloads,” said Lizzy Tapia, President of UNITE HERE Local 2. “Almost a month after our strike began, even more workers are walking off the job because they want to be able to support their families. Hotel workers are ready to do whatever it takes until the hotels decide to give us what our families need.”
UNITE HERE has called on hotels to notify guests if they are booked at a hotel where workers are on strike; many guests have reported that they were not notified of raucous picket lines or service disruptions, even at hotels that have been on strike for weeks. Picket lines run outside struck hotels for up to 24 hours a day, and guests have experienced disruptions including unavailable daily housekeeping, towels and linens piled up in hallways, piles of trash visible outside, closed bars and restaurants, and reduced pool hours.
The union urges travelers not to eat, meet, or sleep at any hotel that’s on strike. Guests are encouraged to consult the union’s travel guide and use its Labor Dispute Map at FairHotel.org, where they can search hotels by name or city to learn whether a hotel is on strike and find alternatives.
After months of contract negotiations, over 10,000 hotel workers across the U.S. went on strike on Labor Day weekend, most on limited duration strikes that ended after two or three days. More strikes followed in the subsequent weeks. Hotel workers in Greenwich and New Haven, Conn., Providence, R.I., and San Diego, Calif., have recently ratified new union contracts that include wage increases and affordable health care, but the union cautions that strike issues are unresolved in most cities. Negotiations are ongoing and strikes issues in other cities remain unresolved; strikes have been authorized and could begin soon in Boston, Honolulu, Kauai, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Mateo County, and Seattle.
Hotel room rates are at record highs, and the U.S. hotel industry made over $100 billion in gross operating profit in 2022. But hotel workers report that their wages aren’t enough to support their families, and many have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
The union says that many hotels took advantage of the pandemic to cut staffing and guest services like automatic daily housekeeping and room service. Staffing per occupied room was down 13% from 2019 to 2022 as many hotels maintained COVID-era cuts, causing some workers to lose jobs and income while increased workloads cause pain and stress for others.
Last year, UNITE HERE members won record contracts after rolling strikes at Los Angeles hotels and a 47-day strike at Detroit casinos.