Strikes start at top hotel chains as housekeepers seek higher wages and daily room cleaning work

With up to 17 rooms to clean each shift, Fatima Amahmoud’s job at the Moxy hotel in downtown Boston sometimes feels impossible. The dog owner had declined daily room cleaning, an option that many hotels have encouraged as environmentally friendly but is a way for them to cut labor costs and cope with worker shortages since the COVID-19 pandemic. Unionized housekeepers, however, have waged a fierce fight to restore automatic daily room cleaning at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income. The dispute has become emblematic of the frustration over working conditions among hotel workers, who were put out of their jobs for months during pandemic shutdowns and returned to an industry grappling with chronic staffing shortages and evolving travel trends. Union members from Local 26, representing workers in the hospitality industries of Massachusetts, picket outside the Hyatt Regency Boston, in Boston, Mass., on July 17, 2024. Charles Krupa / AP file Some 10,000 hotel workers represented by the UNITE HERE union walked off the job Sunday at 25 hotels in eight cities, including Honolulu, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego and Seattle. Hotel workers in other cities could strike in the coming days, as contract talks stall over demands for higher wages and a reversal of service and staffing cuts. “We said many times to the manager that it is too much for us,” said Amahmoud, whose hotel was among those where workers have authorized a strike but have not yet walked out. Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt’s head of labor relations for the Americas, said the company’s hotels have contingency plans to minimize the impact of the strikes. “We are disappointed that UNITE HERE has chosen to strike while Hyatt remains willing to negotiate,” he said. In a statement before the strikes began, Hilton said it was “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.” Marriott and Omni did not return requests for comments. The labor unrest serves as a reminder of the pandemic’s lingering toll on low-wage women, especially Black and Hispanic women who are overrepresented in front-facing service jobs. The U.S. hotel industry employs about 1.9 million people, some 196,000 fewer workers than in February 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s a workforce that relies overwhelmingly on women of color, many of them immigrants, and which skews older, according to UNITE HERE. “Hospitality work overall is undervalued, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s disproportionately women and people of color doing the work,” Mills said. The union hopes to build on its recent success in southern California, where after repeated strikes it won significant wage hikes, increased employer contributions to pensions, and fair workload guarantees in a new contract with 34 hotels. Under the contract, housekeepers at most hotels will earn $35 an hour by July 2027. The American Hotel And Lodging Association says 80% of its member hotels report staffing shortages, and 50% cite housekeeping as their most critical hiring need. Kevin Carey, the association’s interim president and CEO, says hotels are doing all they can to attract workers. According to the association’s surveys, 86% of hoteliers have increased wages over the past six months. “Now is a fantastic time to be a hotel employee,” Carey said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. Maria Mata, 61, a housekeeper at the W Hotel in San Francisco, said she earns $2,190 every two weeks if she gets to work full time. But some weeks, she only gets called in one or two days, causing her to max out her credit card to pay for household expenses “It’s hard to look for a new job at my age. Since the pandemic, UNITE HERE has won back automatic daily room cleans at some hotels in Honolulu and other cities, either through contract negotiations, grievance filings or local government ordinances. The U.S. hotel industry has rebounded from the pandemic despite average occupancy rates that remain shy of 2019 levels, largely due to higher room rates and record guest spending per room. Average revenue per available room, a key metric, is expected to reach a record high of $101.84 in 2024, according the hotel association. David Sherwyn, the director of the Cornell University Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor & Employment Relations, said UNITE HERE is a strong union but faces a tough fight over daily room cleaning because hotels consider reducing services part of a long-term budget and staffing strategy. “The hotels are saying the guests don’t want it, I can’t find the people and it’s a huge expense,” Sherwyn said. Chandra Anderson, 53, makes $16.20 an hour as a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor, where workers have not yet voted to strike. She is hoping for a contract that will raise her hourly pay to $20 but says the company came back with a counteroffer that “felt like a slap in the face.” Anderson, who has been her household’s sole breadwinner since her husband went on dialysis, said they had to move to a smaller house a year ago in part because she wasn’t able to get enough hours at her job. Tracy Lingo, president of UNITE HERE Local 7, said the Baltimore members are seeking pensions for the first time but the biggest priority is bringing hourly wages closer to those in other cities. “That’s how far behind we are,” Lingo said. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/strikes-start-hotel-chains-housekeepers-higher-wages-rcna169158