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Thousands of US hotel workers went on strike over Labour Day Weekend over wages, Covid-era staffing and service cuts.
Workers with the Unite Here union 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 and strikes have also been authorised and could begin at any time in Baltimore, New Haven, Oakland, and Providence.
The union said members are calling for “higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of Covid-era cuts which have created “painful working conditions for those who carry the increased workload”.
Gwen Mills, International President of Unite Here, said: “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.”
