Hundreds more UNITE HERE hotel workers have walked off the job, as another wave of strikes hits the US hotel industry last Thursday.
Nearly 2,000 hotel workers are now on strike at Hilton, Marriott, and Omni hotels in Boston, Massachusetts and San Diego California, including the largest hotel in Boston and the oldest continuously operating hotel in the country. More strikes could begin soon in other cities.
Workers are calling for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of Covid-19-era cuts.
They workers include housekeepers, front desk agents, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, bellhops, doormen, and more.
After months of contract negotiations, over 10,000 hotel workers across the US went on strike on Labour Day weekend, most on limited duration strikes that ended after two or three days.
A second wave of strikes followed the next week. Strike issues in all the cities remain unresolved, and negotiations are ongoing. Strikes have been authorised and could begin at any time in Baltimore, Greenwich, Honolulu, Kauai, New Haven, Oakland, Providence, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.
The strikes in Boston at the Omni Parker House, Omni Boston Seaport, Renaissance Boston Seaport (Marriott), and Westin Boston Seaport (Aimbridge) began last Thursday and lasted three days. The strike in San Diego at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront began on September 1st and will continue until workers have won their contract.
The union urges guests not to eat, sleep, or meet at any hotel that is on strike.
Kaba Kamara, a housekeeping attendant at the Omni Boston Seaport Hotel said: ‘I work full-time here, and sometimes I do overtime. But I still had to get a second job so that I can pay my mortgage and other monthly bills.
‘My schedule is crazy, and I don’t have enough time to spend with my family, with my 10-year-old daughter. I believe that one job should be enough.’
Amir Zuniga, a housekeeping attendant at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront who used to live in San Diego and now lives across the border in Tijuana, Mexico said: ‘There are many reasons for me to be on this strike. The main one is because I want to be able to live in San Diego again. This would help me not lose 6 hours a day at the border just to get to work in time.
‘A wage increase would help me get back to San Diego and help me with my future.’
Hotel room rates are at record highs meaning huge profits for hotel chain owners.
But staffing per occupied room was down 13% from 2019 to 2022 as many hotels maintained their staffing cuts, causing some workers to lose jobs and income while increased workloads cause pain and stress for others.
Gwen Mills, International President of UNITE HERE said: ‘Hotel workers are going to keep up the fight until hotels respect us and our guests.
‘Hotels are making record profits – while guests get less and workers are left behind. Many hotel employees can no longer afford to live in the cities where they welcome travellers, and hotels have cut staffing and services that guests love and expect.’
Meanwhile, after months of negotiations, approximately 525 UAW members have walked out on strike last Thursday at Eaton Aerospace, an aerospace factory in Jackson, Michigan that produces hydraulics equipment for civil, commercial, and military aircraft.
The strike came after the workers’ extended contract expired on September 5.
Donnie Huffman, president of UAW Local 475 said: ‘We are fighting for our future and our community.
‘Every worker should have the right to be able to spend time with our grandkids.
‘When your CEO is making more than $20 million, it’s pretty galling when they cry poverty at the negotiating table.
‘Enough is enough. We’re standing up to fight for what is fair.’
The company has continued to push for a two-tier retirement system which would mean longer term workers getting a larger pension than new hires by the end of the contract.
In addition to opposing that workers are also calling for their next contract to provide quality health care, include wages that reflect workers’ contributions to the company’s growing profits, and establish fair processes for scheduling and promotions.
Over the last decade, Eaton Aerospace has had a revenue of over $208 billion (£157 billion) and a net income of $22 billion. In 2023 alone, the company had a net income of $3.2 billion, an increase of 31 per cent from the year prior. Eaton paid its CEO $20.5 million in 2023, an increase of 46 per cent.
Eaton has yet to offer workers a contract that reflects the gains its top executives have been receiving.
Lynann Bacon, an inspector who works at Eaton said: ‘If Eaton’s executives want to not respect workers, we will hold them accountable.’
UAW Region 1D Director Steve Dawes said: ‘Eaton workers see the record profits and know it should mean a record contract.
‘This corporation continues to funnel money to the top and then asks workers to sacrifice more. Our members see through that and are demanding their fair share of the profits.’
Eaton workers are the latest UAW members to ‘Stand Up’ during contract negotiations. UAW members have won record contracts in the last year, including at Cornell University in New York and Daimler Truck in North Carolina.
The first anniversary of the Stand Up strike that resulted in autoworkers at the Big Three winning historic raises and benefits was September 15th, 2024.
Elsewhere, the Tool & Die Unit at Ford’s River Rouge Complex will strike this coming Thursday if local contract issues are not resolved.
After Ford Motor Company has failed to reach a local agreement with the UAW Local 600, Tool & Die Unit at the Rouge Complex more than a year past the contract deadline. The core issues in the Tool & Die Unit’s local negotiations are job security, wage parity for skilled trades, as well as work rules.
In addition to the UAW’s national contracts, UAW members have negotiated local agreements around plant-specific issues at each facility.
Meanwhile, last Thursday morning, members of Teamsters Local 324 and 206 walked off the job as part of an unfair labour practice (ULP) strike at Bigfoot Beverages facilities in Coos Bay, Eugene, Roseberg, and Newport, Oregon.
Chris R Muhs, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 324 said: ‘Bigfoot is trying to destroy workers’ retirement security.
‘The Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust, which the workers are currently a part of, has over $30 billion in assets and is the largest multi-employer pension plan in the United States.
‘The benefits workers receive are completely funded by employers. Under the proposal from Bigfoot Beverages, one of the largest soft drink and alcohol distributors in the Pacific Northwest, the company would only guarantee nine per cent of workers’ gross pay.’
Geoff Stewart, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 206 said: ‘We’re not going to be appeased by the crumbs Bigfoot tosses our way.
‘They can’t get us to flush our pensions down the drain for a one-time cash offer of $2,500. Bigfoot’s proposal is a monstrous insult to our intelligence.’
Les Mabe, a worker at the Newport facility said: ‘I’ve lived with union pay and benefits for more than 27 years.
‘This is what I know, this is who I am. I plan on retiring as a union worker, with the financial security of a pension.’
- Muslim Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has submitted the names of Palestinian children killed by the Israeli regime in Gaza into the record of the US Congress.
The names were taken from a 649-page list, recently published by Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
‘The first 14 pages alone are names of babies who were under the age of one when they were killed,’ said Tlaib, who is the only Palestinian American member of Congress.
The Democratic representative said: ‘That’s 710 babies that the Israeli government has murdered.
‘I wish my colleagues would look at it.
‘This is not self-defence. This is genocide.’
The Gaza Health Ministry last Monday published a report detailing the name, age, gender and identification numbers of tens of thousands of people killed by Israel over the past 11 months since the regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians.
The shocking 649-page document released contains the details of 34,344 Palestinians killed as of August 31, as the process to collect data for nearly 7,000 more people continues.
At least 41,272 people have been killed since the start of Israel’s war on October 7, 2023.
The initial 14 pages of the document are the names of infants killed under one-year-old. The statistics also show that 11,355 children have been killed so far, a third of the total deaths.
Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, wrote on social media in response to the list: ‘This is a genocide of children. 14 pages of babies. Babies. This is nothing short of an attempt to expunge a people.’
The final 11 pages list Palestinians aged 77 to 101, all of whom were born before the establishment of the Israeli regime in 1948 on appropriated Palestinian territory.