About 13,500 hotel workers in four cities will begin voting today on whether to strike while their new employment contracts are being negotiated, according to their union, Unite Here.
The workers are located in San Francisco, Honolulu, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. The hotels that could be affected include properties in the portfolios of Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Omni.
The strike votes will be staggered rather than all held at once.
The union noted that members are seeking wage increases, a return to pre-COVID staffing levels and a fairer distribution of work. It contends that many hotels operate with smaller staffs today than they did pre-2020, with more work falling on fewer individuals.
The contracts for some of the workers have already expired, and others will lapse before the end of the year, Unite said. It warned that those employees could walk off their jobs at any time if a majority of their property’s staff votes to strike.
It aired the possibility of “rotating strikes” like the job actions members took in Los Angeles before contracts there were finalized earlier in 2024. Instead of all walking out at the same time, staffs of particular hotels would leave their posts to remind management of the leverage they could wield.
In total, the contracts of 40,000 hotel workers nationwide will come up for renegotiation this year, Unite added. The upshot could be strikes here and there throughout the remainder of 2024 and into 2025.
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