Hotel workers

Buffalo Is A Union Town; For Hotel Workers Union-Busting Runs Rampant

April 28, 2025 Derek Seidman, Truthout. Educate! Buffalo, Hotel workers, New York (NY), union busting, Unions

“They just look at you like you’re nothing,” said a housekeeper from the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Buffalo, New York. Sitting with me for a conversation in her East Side apartment, the housekeeper, who requested not to be named due to fear of retaliation, spoke of slashed hours and stagnant pay, arduous and unfair workloads, and racist treatment and verbal abuse from managers so severe that it has sent her running to the bathroom in tears. But when she spoke about the belittling gaze of her employers — the feeling that immigrant workers like herself are seen as “nothing” by the hotel’s management – her words seemed to capture the deep nature of her grievances.

Union-Owned Vegas Hotel Is Hiring Scabs To Break A Strike

November 25, 2024 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. Resist! Hotel workers, Las Vegas, Nevada, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In her 17 years as a guest room attendant, Isabel Gonzalez has scarcely had a moment’s rest. Gonzalez is responsible for cleaning 15 hotel rooms per day—stripping dirty linens, taking out the trash, making beds, cleaning toilets, sweeping, mopping, and dusting—all in the span of 30 to 45 minutes per room. Sometimes she can fill a garbage bag from one room alone, with liquor and juice bottles, bottle caps, and half-eaten food from the floor. When pets stay in the rooms, she must find the time to vacuum twice and carefully sponge fur from the suede chairs. Often, she says, workers fall behind schedule and forgo their lunch breaks to catch up.

Striking Hotel Workers Fight BlackRock

November 3, 2024 Will Hodgkinson, Workers World. Resist! BlackRock, Boston, Hotel workers, Massachusetts, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Boston, Massachusetts - For almost two months, UNITE HERE! Local 26 hotel workers have been striking to demand the living wages and expanded benefits that management has denied them for years. The strike wave began on Sept. l when over 1,000 Boston and Greenwich, Connecticut, hotel workers walked off the job. Rolling strikes in nine other cities — including Baltimore, Honolulu and San Francisco — have followed. UNITE HERE! demands include: increased wages to offset rampant inflation, fair staffing schedules and an end to the staffing cuts made during the first wave of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Over 5,000 hotel workers have gone on strike across the U.S since September.

SeaTac Hotel Workers With UNITE HERE Local 8 On Strike

October 20, 2024 Clio Jensen, Fight Back! News. Resist! Hotel workers, Seattle, Strikes, Wages, Washington, Worker Rights and Jobs

Seattle, Washington – On October 12, over 400 hotel workers at the Doubletree Seattle Airport and the Seattle Airport Hilton & Conference Center walked out and went on strike, joining hotel workers across the U.S. Workers at the two hotels are fighting for good raises, pension plan improvement, fair staffing and respect in their new contract. The picket began at 5 a.m., when dozens of workers joined the picket line outside both striking hotels. As they marched, they chanted, “What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Workers carried signs that read “Respect our work,” “One job should be enough” and “Make them pay.” Cars and buses passing by honked their horns in support as the picket continued throughout the day.

Boston Coalition For Palestine Shuts Down Highway

October 9, 2024 Will Hodgkinson, Workers' World. Resist! Boston, Hotel workers, Lebanon, Massachusetts, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity

Some 5,000 protesters turned out Oct. 6 on Boston Common in a massive show of support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance to the genocidal Zionist state and its U.S. sponsor. Organized by the Boston Coalition for Palestine — whose 45 member organizations include Palestinian House of New England, Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace and Workers World Party — Sunday’s action observed the one-year anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood, when Hamas fighters broke out of besieged Gaza and attacked Israeli settlements on October 7, 2023. On that day, rally emcee Lea Kayali of the Palestinian Youth Movement explained the people of Gaza “broke down the prison doors” and exposed the weakness and complacency of the Zionist apartheid regime.

Over 10,000 Hotel Workers In The US Are On Strike

September 4, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Resist! Hotel workers, Labor Movement, Service Industry, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Over 10,000 hotel workers went on strike early Sunday morning across the United States in pursuit of fair wages, better working conditions, and more staff to help. As working people across the United States are increasingly squeezed economically, hotel workers are coming together on the picket line under the slogan “one job should be enough!” Workers are on strike at hotels across 9 different cities in the US, including Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, Greenwich. Workers are also striking hotels in Honolulu and Kauai in Hawai’i. On Monday morning, 200 more hotel workers walked off the job in Baltimore.

‘Huge, Historic’ Strikes At Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, And Omni Hotels

September 1, 2024 UNITE HERE. Resist! Hotel workers, Strikes, Unions, Wages, Worker Rights

Thousands of hotel workers in twelve cities across the U.S. have authorized strikes at Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Omni hotel properties that are locked in unresolved contract negotiations. Hotel workers with the UNITE HERE union voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing strikes in Baltimore, Boston, Honolulu, Greenwich, Kauai, New Haven, Oakland, Providence, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. Strikes may occur any time following the expiration of contracts. Contracts in some cities have already expired, while the rest expire by the end of the month. Workers are calling for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts.

Long Beach Hotel Workers To Earn Highest Minimum Wage

March 20, 2024 Mark Kreidler, Portside. Organize! California, Hotel workers, Labor Movement, Strikes, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

Part of the Los Angeles region’s “hot labor summer” of 2023 was a growing recognition that the runaway cost of living was squeezing workers and families. It was perhaps the primary driver of the rolling strikes by unionized workers at 60 area hotels during contract negotiations, with many of those negotiations ongoing. But bargaining-table pressure and picket lines are not the only mechanisms for addressing this issue. And voters in Long Beach have likely just approved another path. Measure RW, on which Long Beach residents voted during last week’s primary, significantly raises the minimum wage for workers at Long Beach hotels with more than 100 rooms.

Thousands Of Los Angeles Hotel Workers Are On Strike Again

July 10, 2023 Lauren Kaori Gurley, Washington Post. Resist! Hotel workers, Los Angeles, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights

Several thousand hotel workers in Los Angeles walked off the job Monday morning over wages and staffing levels in the latest escalation of a heated labor dispute in the region. The strikes are affecting major hotels near Los Angeles International Airport, disrupting businesses and domestic and international travelers during the peak of summer. Wages in high-cost Southern California are a key point of contention between hotels and Unite Here Local 11, the union representing hospitality workers. Workers say they are commuting from hours away because they cannot afford to live where they work. They are seeking an immediate $5-an-hour raise, followed by additional increases.

Hotel Workers Across Southern California Walk Off The Job

July 2, 2023 Helen Li, Suhauna Hussain, Susanne Rust and Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times. Resist! California, Hotel workers, Strike, Unions

Thousands of workers at hotels across Southern California walked off the job early Sunday demanding higher pay and better benefits, beginning what could be the largest U.S. hotel workers’ strike in recent memory. The strike will affect roughly 15,000 cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, including the JW Marriott in the L.A. Live entertainment district and luxury destinations like the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. More than 500 workers at the InterContinental and Indigo hotels in downtown Los Angeles were the first to join the strike on Sunday, taking to the streets with picket signs at 6 a.m.

Baltimore Marriott Hotel Workers Say Managers Pocket Half Their Tips

April 13, 2023 Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network. Resist! Baltimore, Hotel workers, Strikes, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

Baltimore, Maryland - Despite the cold weather, dozens of workers and their supporters picketed outside the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore in February, as they had been doing—and have continued to do—for months. The workers are demanding better wages and working conditions, which they say they are owed on principle—but also because of the heavy public subsidies their employer receives. Andre Eldridge Jr., who has worked at the Marriott Waterfront since 2017, said that many of his colleagues live paycheck to paycheck and have to take on second jobs to make ends meet. “That’s just crazy,” he told The Real News.

Hotels Don’t Waste A Crisis

August 26, 2021 Saurav Sarkar, Labor Notes. Resist! Hotel workers, Labor Unions, Pandemic, Worker Rights

Javier Gonzalez used to send money every two weeks to his 85- and 90-year-old parents in his home country. He had to stop because his employer, Boston Marriott Copley Place, terminated Gonzalez and 230 of his co-workers last September, after temporarily laying them off at the start of the pandemic. They made up more than half the hotel’s workforce. Gonzalez is one of 500,000 hotel workers in the U.S. and tens of thousands in Canada who have lost their jobs since Covid hit. Pre-pandemic, there were roughly 1.7 million hotel and motel workers in the United States and 156,000 in Canada. Gonzalez worked as a lead supervisor in the utility department. Despite the title, he wasn’t management; he helped clean the kitchen and organize banquets at Boston’s second-biggest hotel.

Hotel Workers Turn To Courts To Fight Pandemic Firings

January 25, 2021 Alex Nguyen, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, COVID-19, Hotel workers, Worker Rights and Jobs

A former worker is proposing a class action lawsuit against a major Vancouver hotel over alleged wrongful terminations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Romuel Escobar, who worked at the Pan Pacific hotel for 24 years before being fired in August, filed a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday. His lawsuit accuses the hotel of terminating workers without cause or notice. It also seeks to represent some 250 current and former regular hourly employees directly impacted by the pandemic in a class action suit. Unite Here Local 40, which represents B.C. hotel workers, supports the legal action. Workers at the hotel were not members of the union, but Local 40 says it was working with them in a union organizing effort last summer.

Laid-Off Hotel Workers Rally After Health Insurance Yanked

October 26, 2020 Mitch Dudek, Chicago Sun Times. Resist! Chicago, COVID-19, Health Insurance, Hotel workers

About 150 hotel workers who’d been laid off — but promised their jobs back when the hotel industry rebounds — gathered in Grant Park Friday to call on their employers to continue providing health insurance. They are among about 7,000 Chicago hotel workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 1 who are out of work, most since March. Their health insurance lasted until Oct. 1, and workers are now calling on hotel operators to extend benefits.

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