Honolulu, Hawaii – Approx. 10,000 hotel workers across the U.S. are on strike.
After months of unresolved negotiations, hotel workers with the UNITE HERE union walked off the job today at 25 hotels in eight cities: Boston, Greenwich, Honolulu, Kauai, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. Each city’s strike will last two or three days; Labor Day will see thousands of workers on strike. Strikes have also been authorized and could begin at any time in Baltimore, New Haven, Oakland, and Providence.
Click here for B-roll of the strikes.
Workers are calling for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts. They say their wages aren’t enough to cover the cost of living, and many have to work two jobs to make ends meet. The union says that many hotels took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to cut staffing and guest services that were never restored, causing workers to lose jobs and income – and creating painful working conditions for those who carry the increased workload.
“I have to work a second job because my job at the hotel is not enough to support my kids as a single mom,” said Mary Taboniar, a housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu for six years. “I’m living on the edge where I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pay our rent and groceries or provide my family with health care. It’s so stressful. One job should be enough.”
“I’m on strike because I don’t want hotels to become the next airline industry,” said Christian Carbajal, a market attendant who has worked for 15 years at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego. “I used to work in room service, but after COVID, they closed my department. Now I work in the grab-and-go market. Guests complain to me that they can no longer get a steak delivered up to the room, and the tips aren’t what they used to be. I’m making less than I used to, and now two families share my house because we can’t afford the rent anymore. The hotels should respect our work and our guests.”
“Since COVID, they’re expecting us to give five-star service with three-star staff,” said Elena Duran, a server at Marriott’s Palace Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, in San Francisco for 33 years. “A couple weeks ago, we were at 98% occupancy, but they only put three servers when we used to be a team of four or five. It’s too much pressure on us to go faster and faster instead of calling in more people to work.
Room rates are at record highs, and the U.S. hotel industry made over $100 billion in gross operating profit in 2022. But hotel staffing per occupied room was down 13% from 2019 to 2022 as many hotels maintained COVID-era cuts, including understaffing, ending automatic daily housekeeping, and removing food and beverage options.
The union urges guests not to eat, sleep, or meet at any hotel that is on strike or where workers have been on strike until they secure a new contract. Hotels may suspend services while trying to operate with skeleton staffing, and picket lines will run outside struck hotels for up to 24 hours a day. Guests are encouraged to consult the union’s travel guide and use its Labor Dispute Map, where they can search hotels by name or city to learn whether a hotel is on strike and find alternatives.
“Ten thousand hotel workers across the U.S. are on strike because the hotel industry has gotten off track,” said Gwen Mills, International President of UNITE HERE. “During COVID, everyone suffered, but now the hotel industry is making record profits while workers and guests are left behind. Too many hotels still haven’t restored standard services that guests deserve, like automatic daily housekeeping and room service. 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. We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers.”
