The union representing 3,000 workers at Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels in San Francisco could strike this week to put pressure on the chains after about two months of negotiations have failed to produce a new contract.
A strike authorization vote by union members concluded Friday with support of 94% of those voting, said Lizzy Tapia, president of Unite Here Local 2. The union couldn’t say how many of the workers voted. Authorization of a strike does not guarantee there will be a work stoppage.
The union for housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and bellmen said it has bargained since June to increase wages and pensions, add protections against what it calls work overloads and maintain workers’ health insurance costs.
Contracts expire Aug. 14 at the Hilton Union Square, Hilton-owned Parc 55, Marriott Marquis, Marriott Union Square, Marriott-owned Palace Hotel, Grand Hyatt Union Square, Hyatt Regency Embarcadero and Westin St. Francis, the union said.
The last significant strike by hotel union members in San Francisco was in October 2018, when about 2,500 Marriott workers picketed outside downtown hotels during the height of the city’s convention season.
“We’re voting to strike because we need all these raises,” said Rose Sia, who said she has been a union member for about 43 years. “Everything costs more outside, and we cannot afford it.”
Sia said her job every day is to ensure that four floors of a Hyatt hotel are shipshape after housekeepers clean them. Recently, she said she has been tasked with checking more floors when her hotel is understaffed.
“I’m not getting any younger,” Sia said. “My body aches, my feet hurt. I do a lot of walking at work, and sometimes we’re understaffed, so they give us extra floors.”
Sia said she hopes a new contract would make her employer hire more workers and lessen the load on existing employees.
According to Tapia, many hotels stopped cleaning rooms daily and limited access to gyms and pools during the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, hotels cut staff, but left existing workers with more to do, she said.
Tapia also said not cleaning rooms every day does not relieve staff of labor. Rather, it leaves housekeepers with days of grime that is more tough to clean.
The three hotel chains did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the authorization vote, the potential strike or hospitality workers’ concerns about their workplaces.
“My co-workers are very ready,” Sia said. “We should show the Hyatt hotels that we are united and ready to fight.”
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