Dive Brief:

• Hotel workers at Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square are organizing to join Unite Here and the International Union of Operating Engineers, despite the hotel holding mandatory anti-union meetings and threatening to change the schedule of the employee leading the organizing effort.
• The hotel is managed by Accor and owned by private equity firm Brookfield Asset Management. Unite Here represents hotels managed and owned by both companies in 11 other cities across the U.S. and Canada.
• The organizing workers are largely immigrants, women and people of color, many of whom say their jobs aren’t sufficient to support themselves, Unite Here said in a statement. Their unionization effort follows pushes to organize and strike in other hotels nationwide, where many workers say their wages are insufficient to cover the cost of living.

Dive Insight:

A contentious union-organizing battle is taking place just a few blocks from the White House at one of the Biden Administration’s preferred hotel brands. 

Hotel workers at Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square are organizing for a variety of reasons, chief among them a lack of affordable health insurance. Some say their wages are insufficient to cover the cost of living in Washington, one of the nation’s most expensive cities. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, the living wage for an adult caring for one child in the District of Columbia is $42.61. 

“Accor should agree to the same fair process at the D.C. Sofitel that has been used at other hotels owned by Brookfield to allow workers to organize and decide whether to form a union without threats and intimidation,” said Unite Here Local 25 Executive-Secretary Treasurer Paul Schwalb in a statement. 

To protest what the hotel’s workers see as union-busting efforts, Unite Here will hold a rally on Wednesday, where U.S. Representatives Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) will speak in support of organized labor. 

“Brookfield stands to benefit from billions in taxpayer subsidies. It should take a stance against anti-union bullying immediately,” said Rep. Boyle.

Unions are more popular now than they have been at any time since the 1960s, according to Gallup. In 2022, strikes were up 52% compared to the previous year, according to Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations’ annual report. 

The District of Columbia, however, has a union membership rate that is lower than the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

According to Unite Here, the State Department has spent over $1.3 million on Sofitel hotels worldwide over the past two and a half years. Given Sofitel Washington DC’s central location, high-profile politicians and their guests — including from the French Embassy, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Embassy of Brazil — frequently stay there.

Hospitality unions’ fight for better working conditions has gained momentum in other major U.S. cities in recent weeks. Last month, the New York/New Jersey Hotel and Gaming Trades Council reached a landmark deal to raise wages by $7.50 an hour for its 7,000 union members. That same week, L.A. City Council members introduced a motion to raise the minimum wage for hotel workers in the city. 

Brookfield Asset Management declined to comment for this story, and Accor did not respond for comment.