About 10,000 employees of major hotel chains across the US are demanding better wages, more reasonable workloads and reversal of job cuts. The employees of big brands, such as Marriott, Omni and Hyatt in Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and San Jose are choosing to join the strike that began on 1 September, 2024.
The strike is being called by Unite Here, the union that has over 40,000 hotel employees as members. The union has been negotiating with these hotel chains for some time now. The union has highlighted the fact that some employees are being forced to take up side hustles to be able to keep up with the cost of living, while the hotels continue to rake in profits. The workers are overworked because the hotels are operating with smaller and leaner teams while the occupancy has been rising.
The strike has been well timed to cause disruption since a lot of people travel during the Labour Day weekend. Unite Here is encouraging travelers to avoid eating or staying at hotels where the workers are on strike. The strikes are expected to go on for three days at each of the hotels.
The staff members at Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor will be off work for a day, while in Boston, the employees at Fairmont Copley Plaza will be off for three days, at Hampton Inn & Homewood Suites by Hilton Boston Seaport for three days, at Hilton Boston Logan Airport for three days and Hilton Boston Park Plaza for three days. Hyatt Regency Greenwich will also see workers on strike for three days. Other hotels that will witness striking staff for three days each include: Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach, The Royal Hawaiian (Marriott Luxury Collection), Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (Marriott), Sheraton Waikiki (Marriott), Waikiki Beach Marriott and Westin Moana Surfrider (Marriott).
In San Francisco, workers of Grand Hyatt Union Square, Hilton Union Square, Westin St. Francis (Marriott), Palace Hotel (Marriott Luxury Collection) and Grand Hyatt SFO will also be joining the strike for three days. In Seattle, DoubleTree by Hilton Seattle Airport, Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Centre, as well as Westin Seattle (Marriott) will see workers off work for two days.
