Dive Brief:
- Union hotel workers picketed Hilton Americas-Houston to advocate for a wage increase to at least $23 per hour, according to a release from hospitality union Unite Here Local 23, obtained by Hotel Dive. Hilton Americas is the city’s largest hotel by rooms, according to Houston Business Journal.
- The workers’ contract with the hotel expired June 30. This is the first time workers have picketed the hotel in its history, Unite Here told Hotel Dive, and the first hotel picket line in the city in decades.
- Unite Here Local 23 represents some 3,000 hospitality workers in Houston. A union spokesperson told Hotel Dive earlier this year that contracts for nearly all of them are up for negotiations this year — and that strikes are a possibility if contract negotiations don’t meet their demands.
Dive Insight:
The lowest-paid workers at Hilton Americas-Houston currently make $16.50, a Unite Here spokesperson told Hotel Dive. A $23 wage, therefore, would constitute a $6.50 per hour wage increase.
“I have to bartend on the weekend because I can't make it on $16.50 an hour … $23 an hour would mean I could finally breathe,” Brittney Lazo, a Starbucks Barista at the Hilton Americas, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Houston saw a record $3 billion in hotel revenue last year, a 15.5% year-on-year increase, per Houston First Corporation.
Houston’s union hospitality workers claim they aren’t benefiting from the city’s record tourism, according to Unite Here. Their messaging echoes that of union-led campaigns in other parts of the U.S.
Unite Here Local 11’s Defend the Wage campaign in Los Angeles, for instance, is fighting against industry pushback around a $30 minimum wage for hospitality workers timed to go into effect as the city benefits from heightened tourism during the 2028 Olympics.
And last year, some 13,000 union hotel workers walked off the job nationwide to advocate for wages that better meet the rising cost of living.
Workers won higher wages in nearly all the markets that went on strike, including at other large Hilton properties such as Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hawaii’s largest hotel.
Unite Here Local 23 also represents hospitality workers at Houston’s Marriott Marquis, George R. Brown Convention Center and the George Bush International Airport, where union contracts are set to expire between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1.
In April, union workers in Houston launched an initiative to advocate for a $23 minimum wage for hospitality workers citywide.
