Why thousands of hotel workers are on strike

Few industries were disrupted as drastically by the COVID-19 pandemic as the hospitality sector. Now, as travel has bounced back to prepandemic highs and COVID precautions have fallen by the wayside, thousands of hotel workers say they are still suffering from the lower wages and higher workloads that the pandemic period ushered in.

Some 10,000 workers, including housekeepers, front-desk staff members and servers, went on strike across the United States on Sunday after contract negotiations stalled. On Monday, nearly 300 hotel workers joined the strike in Baltimore on the busy Labor Day holiday weekend.

The hotel workers are calling for higher wages, as well as the reversal of COVID-era staffing and service cuts. Housekeeping in particular has emerged as a key issue. During the pandemic, the union said, many hotels cut staffing and guest services such as daily housekeeping and room service, which caused some workers to lose income and created a heavier workload for the remaining workers.

A number of hotels have made those changes permanent to cut costs, offering daily housekeeping only on request. But some housekeepers say stripping away more frequent cleanings can make the cleaning at the end of stays much more arduous and time-consuming.

Union workers will not accept a “new normal” of cutbacks to services for hotel guests, Gwen Mills, international president of UNITE HERE, the union that represents the workers, said in a statement. “The hotel industry has rebounded from the pandemic, and room rates are at record highs,” she said.

They also say that, after enduring years of disruption from the pandemic, their wages have not kept pace with the cost of living. Housekeepers at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor hotel, for example, are asking for a raise to $20 an hour from $16.20.

UNITE HERE said workers were on strike at 25 hotels in nine locations: Baltimore; Boston; Greenwich, Connecticut; Honolulu; Kauai, Hawaii; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose, California; and Seattle. The hotels include some Hilton, Hyatt, Fairmont and Marriott properties.

The strikes in each location were expected to last one to three days, according to the union. The hotels said they would remain open and had contingency plans in place to mitigate the impact on travelers.

Hyatt’s head of labor relations, Michael D’Angelo, said in a statement that the company was “disappointed that UNITE HERE has chosen to strike while Hyatt remains willing to negotiate.” He added that it has “offered competitive wages, health care and retirement benefits at the hotels that are on strike at this time.”

A Hilton spokesperson said the company was “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.” Marriott and Fairmont did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There could be additional strikes in other cities. UNITE HERE union members have voted to authorize strikes in New Haven, Connecticut; Oakland, California; and Providence, Rhode Island.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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