Marriott Workers at St. Regis and W Hotel Vote to Strike as Union Calls on Hotel Companies to "Bet on SF” Before Strikes Expand and Continue Into 2025

San Francisco – Hotel workers at the St. Regis San Francisco and W San Francisco, both Marriott-operated hotels, voted today by an overwhelming 90.4% to authorize strikes. The nearly 500 hotel workers can now strike at any time, and could join approx. 2,000 hotel workers on strike at Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott hotels throughout San Francisco. Today is day 61 of the strike.

Click here for photos from the vote, courtesy of UNITE HERE Local 2. Workers and union officials are available for interviews. Please call to coordinate.

“The hotels’ extreme demands – including phasing out union health care – have only made hotel workers more determined to defend our families and our city,” said Lizzy Tapia, President of UNITE HERE Local 2. “Our strike will continue and may even grow if that’s what it takes for San Francisco hotel workers to secure affordable healthcare, decent pay, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts. More customers are cancelling their business every day that the strike goes on, but Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott are prioritizing their greed over the city’s economic recovery.”

“I’m ready to strike to protect my healthcare,” said Camucha King, Room Service Server at the St. Regis San Francisco for 19 years. “I have a daughter with asthma and I deal with my own health issues, so healthcare is a basic need. It’s so expensive in this city, and as a single mother I’m worried about taking care of my family and affording my housing costs. After almost 20 years faithfully working at this hotel, I can’t believe they are treating us like this. I want my fair share of what Marriott is making off my back.”

The strike votes cover housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, bellmen, and more at the W San Francisco and the St. Regis San Francisco. The workers’ contracts expired on August 14, 2024.

In August, workers offered to sacrifice most guaranteed wage increases and make their own pay contingent on future hotel profits if the hotels agreed to “Bet on SF” by reversing COVID-era service cuts. San Francisco’s tourism industry has been slow to recover from the pandemic, and workers say the hotel industry is holding the city back through disinvestment and understaffing. They want hotels to reopen restaurants that bring foot traffic downtown, staff up on bellmen and doormen who serve as eyes on the street, and take other proactive measures to end the “doom loop.” The hotels have not agreed and are proposing to phase out workers’ union health care.

Hotel workers with UNITE HERE Local 2 have warned that the hotels’ extreme negotiating positions threaten the city’s economic recovery; major conventions have already signaled that they will cancel bookings or take future business to other cities to avoid staying at striking hotels. Around two dozen clients that book room blocks and/or events have pulled their business from San Francisco hotels since the strike began nearly two months ago, including Lufthansa, which moved an estimated 22,900 room nights per year from the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Four major clients have pledged to book 25,000 room nights in San Francisco hotels beginning in 2025, if the strike is settled in time.

2,000 housekeepers, servers, bartenders, cooks, dishwashers, bellhops, doormen, and more are currently on strike at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco, Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Marriott Union Square, Palace Hotel, and Westin St. Francis. Additional strikes have already been authorized by 1,850 workers at another seven Bay Area hotels.

Over 10,000 hotel workers have gone on strike in eleven cities across the U.S. since Labor Day. San Francisco is the only city where workers remain on strike.

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UNITE HERE Local 2 is the hospitality workers’ union in the San Francisco Bay Area, representing over 15,000 workers, at San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport, and hotels, restaurants, tech cafeterias, sports stadiums and more.