For immediate release
October 2, 2018
Rachel Gumpert
(908) 752-3929
rgumpert [at] unitehere [dot] org
BREAKING: Strike HQ Open For Thousands of Marriott Workers Across America as Negotiations Fail to Resolve Key Issues
Follow Along Minute-by-Minute at #1Job
Washington, DC – One week after 8,300 Marriott workers voted to authorize strikes that can begin at any moment without warning, strike headquarters for thousands of workers are now opening in multiple cities as days of negotiations failed to resolve key issues at the bargaining table.
Thousands of workers are making picket signs, testing bullhorns, signing up for picket line shifts, and doing the other tasks required to prepare for an immediate walk out. Strike headquarters covering over 6,000 workers are open and running today inBoston, Hawaii, and San Francisco, and 8,300 workers in those locations as well as Detroit, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle have authorized strikes that can begin immediately and are appearing more inevitable, after multiple days of negotiations across the country the past week failed to move the company adequately on strike issues of workplace safety, jobs that pay enough to live on, and basic job protection around automation.
“Marriott International is the richest and largest hotel company in the world, and can and must act like the leader it is in the hotel industry by providing jobs where workers are safe and can support their families with dignity,” said D. Taylor, international president of UNITE HERE. “Today after months of negotiations across multiple cities, we have opened Marriott strike headquarters across America because 8,300 UNITE HERE members have the courage and the power to take on the biggest hotel company in the world and are willing to fight to transform jobs they can’t survive on into careers where they can support their families with dignity.”
After 8,300 workers held strike authorizations in the past few weeks, UNITE HERE returned to the table with Marriott in multiple cities the past week. Marriott has failed to reach agreement with workers on key issues, including workplace safety around the so-called “Green Choice” program, job protections around technology and automation, and the need for Marriott to compensate workers enough for one job at Marriott to be enough for workers to support themselves and their families. Marriott is the most profitable and biggest hotel company on earth and a leader in the hospitality industry, yet many Marriott workers have to work multiple full-time jobs to survive because one job at Marriott is not enough.
###
UNITE HERE represents 270,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada. Learn more at www.OneJob.org