Dive Brief:
- Over the weekend, nearly 700 Omni Hotels & Resorts workers in Boston ended their labor disputes, while hundreds more hotel employees walked off the job in San Francisco, according to hospitality union Unite Here on Monday.
- Some 685 Omni Hotels & Resorts employees in Boston settled a new contract, winning raises and more affordable health care. Meanwhile, hundreds of Marriott International employees walked off the job at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel, joining more than 1,000 hotel workers already on strike in the city.
- The nationwide hotel strikes, which began Sept. 1, are now in their seventh consecutive week. Thus far, several hotels have reached agreements with their workers to settle new contracts — but thousands of union workers remain on strike.
Dive Insight:
Omni employees in Boston joined the city’s strikes on Oct. 14 and were off the job for approximately a week. More than 600 Hilton employees in the city are still on strike.
Unite Here did not disclose a dollar amount for the raises, but James Smith, a banquet server at Omni Parker House, called the raises “meaningful.”
In San Francisco, 310 workers at the Marriott-operated Palace Hotel walked off the job Sunday morning, bringing the total number of hotel workers on strike in the city to nearly 2,000. In a statement, Lizzy Tapia, president of Unite Here Local 2 in San Francisco, said workers are striking “because we want jobs that are actually enough to support our families.”
“Hotel workers do tough, physical jobs cleaning rooms, carrying luggage, and cooking and serving food, and we are tired of waiting for affordable health care, good raises, and fair workloads,” Tapia added.
A Marriott spokesperson told Hotel Dive that the Palace Hotel remains open, due to protocols in place to operate in the event of any impact to staffing. “We remain available to meet with the local union negotiating committee to reach an agreement that is fair to all parties,” the spokesperson said.
Omni did not immediately respond to a Hotel Dive request for comment.
Elsewhere in the country, workers at two hotels in Seattle’s limited-duration strike ended as planned on Friday.
In Hawaii, Hilton guests staged a protest at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hawaii’s largest hotel, after strikes disrupted their service, according to Island News.
In addition to Omni hotels in Boston, workers at Hyatt Regency Greenwich in Greenwich, Connecticut; Omni Providence Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island; and Hilton San Diego Bayfront in California have settled contracts to end labor disputes.
More than 10,000 hotel workers have gone on strike since walkouts began over Labor Day weekend. Additional strikes have been authorized and could still begin in Boston; Honolulu and Kauai, Hawaii; Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and San Mateo County, California; and Seattle.
