Hotel workers are readying for a strike, with all eyes on UNITE HERE Local 1, Chicago’s hospitality workers union representing more than 16,000 hotel, food service and casino workers, and on Marriott, whose employees are taking to the streets in cities across the nation in protest for better wages.
The UNITE HERE Local 1 union says it’s readying for a strike now that its contracts have expired (they expired last Friday), and if that happens the potentially affected hotels are:
- Ambassador Chicago
- Cambria Magnificent Mile
- Crowne Plaza Hotel Chicago-Metro
- Doubletree Chicago Magnificent Mile
- Drake Hotel
- Fairmont Chicago
- Hampton Inn / Homewood Suites Magnificent Mile
- Hilton Chicago
- Holiday Inn Mart Plaza
- Hotel Blake
- Hotel Raffaello
- Hyatt Regency Chicago
- Hyatt Regency McCormick Place
- Inn of Chicago
- JW Marriott
- Kimpton Hotel Allegro
- Kimpton Hotel Palomar
- Kinzie Hotel
- Millennium Knickerbocker
- Palmer House
- Park Hyatt Chicago
- The Ritz-Carlton Chicago
- Sheraton Grand Chicago
- Tremont Chicago Hotel at Magnificent Mile
- W Chicago City Center
- W Chicago Lakeshore
- Warwick Allerton
- Westin Michigan Avenue
- Westin River North
- Wyndham Grand
Meanwhile, tomorrow in Boston, hundreds of hotel workers from UNITE HERE Local 26, which represents hotel and food service employees in Boston, will begin picketing at seven Boston hotels run by Marriott, according to The Boston Globe.
Hundreds of workers in Boston held a Labor Day rally in front of the Westin Copley, banging drums and carrying signs, and police were forced to stop traffic on Huntington Avenue, one of the city’s busiest streets, as about 20 people staged a sit-in. And a rally of more than 1,000 hotel workers and allies of UNITE HERE Local 2, the hotel and restaurant workers’ union of San Francisco and San Mateo counties, resulted in 75 arrests as the group staged a sit-in in front of the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The historic hotel is one of seven properties owned and operated by Marriott in San Francisco that have authorized a strike vote on Sept. 13 over stalled contract talks affecting 8,000 housekeepers, bartenders, cooks and bell hops.
This story was originally written by and reported on by Barbara Scofidio on prevuemeetings.com. It was edited for recommend.com.
