About 10,000 Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott employees in eight states are striking over Labor Day weekend, the latest labor dispute in the hotel industry over wages and lingering service cuts that started during the COVID-19 pandemic—but the hotel chains say they’re willing to negotiate.
Hospitality workers are in negotiations for increased wages and an end to service cuts following the ... [+]
The workers striking are part of UNITE HERE, a labor union for the U.S. and Canada that covers hospitality workers, including those in the hotel, gaming, manufacturing, food service and airport industries.
The union said workers are striking after “months of unresolved negotiations” for new contracts and they’re asking for higher wages and an end to COVID-era job cuts the union says led to high workloads and “painful working conditions.”
Gwen Mills, international president of UNITE HERE, said in a press release the union will not “accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests,” citing cuts to daily room cleaning and more limited food services that haven’t returned to normal post-COVID.
About 40,000 workers in 20 cities who are represented by UNITE HERE face expired contracts, Reuters reported, and negotiations for new contracts have been ongoing and unsuccessful since May.
Hyatt’s head of labor relations for the Americas Michael D’Angelo told The New York Times on Sunday the chain is “disappointed (workers chose) to strike while Hyatt remains willing to negotiate,” adding it has contingency plans to mitigate impacts.
A spokesperson for Hilton told CNN the company is committed to reaching a deal with the union and will continue service during the stoppage (Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment on the strikes).
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This weekend’s strikes include 24 hotels across eight states, in Boston; Greenwich, Connecticut; Honolulu and Kauai, Hawaii; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose, California; and Seattle. Each city’s workers will be on strike for two or three days starting Sunday, according to the union.
The union argues positions cut during the COVID-19 era should be reinstated, at least in part because the hospitality industry is on the rebound from a pandemic slump. STR, a hospitality data company, says it expects “to see continued growth” as conditions “remain more favorable for the travel economy” after revenue per room and average daily rates hit record highs in the U.S. in 2023. Leisure travel improved quickly as the pandemic wound down, and business travel was slower to return but is expected to continue bouncing back. Still, hotel staffing levels remain below pre-pandemic levels: In January 2020, there were 2.12 million employees in the accommodation sector, and while that number has inched back to where it was, it was still only at 1.92 million in May, the last month with complete Bureau of Labor Statistics data. As a result, some hotel chains have scaled back services like daily housekeeping, instead opting to clean rooms every few days, a move hotels argue is more convenient for travelers but many employees view as an added burden. With labor contracts expiring, UNITE HERE hotel employees in the striking cities voted in favor of striking in August and warned strikes could occur anytime after contracts expired, which happened for many in August, according to the union. The union has organized strikes over busy travel periods in the past, including last year in southern California. The New York Times reported the union organized similar strikes last Fourth of July in the Los Angeles area, and struck again when Taylor Swift brought her Eras Tour to Los Angeles, which led some state officials to call on Swift to postpone her shows there.
5,000. That’s how many workers are on strike in Honolulu, according to data provided by the union. The striking workers are from seven hotels totaling more than 10,500 rooms, and the strike is scheduled to last from Sunday through Tuesday. The next city with the highest amount of striking workers—2,080—is San Francisco.
The strike comes during a Labor Day that is expected to be busy for travelers and the hospitality industry. AAA said this year domestic travel over the long weekend is expected to be up 9% compared to last year, and it named San Francisco and Boston—two of the cities in which workers are striking—as top travel destinations. The Transportation Security Administration said it is expecting its busiest Labor Day travel period, which runs from Aug. 29 through Wednesday, ever, with more than 17 million expected to be screened.
Strikes were also approved at hotels in Baltimore, New Haven, Connecticut, Oakland, California, and Providence, Rhode Island. Workers there had not gone on strike as of 3:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, but UNITE HERE said their strikes could begin at any time.