Hotel Workers in Boston Launch Indefinite Strike
Move away from Rolling Strikes
1300 hotel workers in Boston are now out on an indefinite strike against Omni and Hilton hotels.
600 joined the strike on Monday, October 14.
Workers at two Hilton hotels a had waged a three-day strike September 19-21. Now several hundred Omni workers have joined and all are striking until a contract is reached.(1)
374 Seattle hotel workers walked out on October 12 at the Hilton airport hotel and the airport and conference center. They plan to strike until October 19.(2)
The workers are represented by the UNITE HERE union. This union has been holding hotel strikes on the West and East Coasts in recent months, including large walkouts around the Labor Day weekend holiday.
Most of these strikes have been limited duration actions, limited to three days. This tactic, which the UNITE HERE labor leaders seem to prefer, may encourage reluctant workers to actually strike. But the strike votes have reportedly been above 90% at all the strike venues, so there apparently is no lack of enthusiasm to walk out.
But getting a new contract with only three days hitting the bricks is a problem. It takes long negotiations, if it works at all, and workers seem to be tiring of the wait.
Workers in San Diego launched an indefinite (full) strike in September, and now workers at three Boston hotels have done the same. The San Diego strike ended October 6. The labor bureaucrats of UNITE HERE called the raise the workers got “significant”, but we have no further information on the settlement (3)
The latest on other hotel strikes: “Hotels with indefinite strikes also include the Hilton Boston Logan Airport, the Hilton Boston Park Plaza and the Omni Parker House. In Honolulu, workers are indefinitely on strike at Hilton Hawaiian Village. In San Francisco, indefinite hotel worker strikes are currently underway at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco, the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square.”(4)
There is a determined strike movement underway at U.S. hotels, from Hawaii to Boston. UNITE HERE is giving it very tentative leadership.
The workers seem to want to carry it further. The motion at some worker locations shows greater determination than the UNITE HERE bureaucrats want.
We support this motion and hope it deepens. This is a diverse, multicultural section of the workforce, always underpaid ad marginalized.
We applaud its fighting spirit!
NOTES
1) Boston 25 News, https://www.boston25news.com/news/local ... 6XKAJSX4U/
2) Reuters, October 12, 2024, Hotel workers strike in Seattle, Washington, joining thousands of US strikers, https://www.voanews.com/a/hotel-workers ... 20533.html
3) San Diego Union Tribune, October 10. 2024, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/20 ... ay-strike/
4) The Five Points Guy, Hotel labor strikes with no end in sight ramp up in major US cities,
October 18, 2024, https://thepointsguy.com/news/hotel-wor ... ke-update/
update on hotel strikes
Re: update on hotel strikes
Typos
Para. 3 - “hotels a had waged” should be “hotels had waged”
Para. 8 - needs a period at the end of the final sentence
Para. 12 - “underpaid ad marginalized” should be “underpaid and marginalized”
Para. 3 - “hotels a had waged” should be “hotels had waged”
Para. 8 - needs a period at the end of the final sentence
Para. 12 - “underpaid ad marginalized” should be “underpaid and marginalized”