After months of unresolved negotiations, hotel workers with IUF affiliate UNITE HERE walked off the job today at 24 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.
- Workers are calling for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts
- 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
- 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.
- Last year, UNITE HERE members won record contracts after rolling strikes at Los Angeles hotels and a 47-day strike at Detroit casinos.
Gwen Mills, IUF Vice President and International President of UNITE HERE, stated, “Ten thousand hotel workers across the U.S. are on strike because the hotel industry has gotten off track. 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.”
