Dive Brief:
- Approximately 600 Boston hotel workers at Hilton Boston Park Plaza and Hilton Boston Logan Airport walked off the job Sunday and have elected to strike until their contract demands are met, hospitality union Unite Here announced Monday.
- Across Boston, hotel workers have held multiple waves of limited-duration strikes as they push for contracts that offer higher wages and better working conditions. The latest strikes mark the first open-ended ones in the city.
- The Boston hotel workers joined others in Honolulu, San Diego and San Francisco on strike, making nearly 5,000 total workers off the job nationwide. All employees striking now plan to do so until their contract demands are met.
Dive Insight:
According to Unite Here, earlier strikes in Boston led to service disruptions at the affected hotels, such as “unavailable daily housekeeping, towels and linens piled up in hallways, piles of trash visible outside, closed bars and restaurants, and reduced pool hours,” though in statements to Hotel Dive, hotel companies said they were operating as normal.
Hotel strikes have occurred in cities across the country since Sept. 1, when 10,000-plus workers walked out for a first wave of limited-duration strikes. In its Monday announcement, the union said “strikes across the U.S. are expected to grow before labor disputes are resolved.”
Last week, hotel workers in Providence, Rhode Island, and Greenwich, Connecticut, reached the first contract agreements since the strikes began, ending labor disputes at Hyatt Regency Greenwich and Omni Providence Hotel.
But elsewhere in the country, strikes have been authorized and could still begin in Baltimore; Boston; Kauai, Hawaii; Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose and San Mateo County, California; and Seattle.
More than 40,000 hotel employees across the U.S. and Canada are negotiating new work contracts this year, according to Unite Here.
