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A union worker drums on a bucket as she pickets outside of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square hotel on Sept. 3, 2024, in San Francisco, California. For the second time this month, 1,500 Unite Here Local 2 hotel workers from the Grand Hyatt, Hilton, and Westin St. Francis in Union Square have walked off the job, protesting pay and understaffing. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
More than 1,500 hotel workers are on strike in San Francisco, marking the Bay Area’s second major hospitality walkout this month as labor organizers push for higher wages and protest understaffing.
The strike, organized by the UNITE HERE Local 2 union representing bellhops, housekeepers, cooks and other hotel employees, started Sunday after months of challenging negotiations with Westin St. Francis, Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the Grand Hyatt San Francisco. The union’s previous contract with the hotels expired on Aug. 14.
Around 40 workers marched in front of the Hilton on Monday morning, protesting high workloads and wages that don’t match the Bay Area’s high cost of living, as well as a need for affordable healthcare and pensions.
“The hotel is not offering us a fair contract,” said Genevieve Obando, a housekeeper at the Hilton. “We want to see an improvement in our salary and to keep our insurance since insurance is very expensive. We are trying to fight for our rights.”
Over 2,000 UNITE HERE hotel workers across the Bay Area went on strike over Labor Day weekend, demanding higher wages and a reversal of pandemic-era service and staffing cuts in one of the largest national hotel workers’ walkouts since 2018. That walkout lasted three days.
In San Diego, 700 employees are also currently on strike at the Hilton Bayview.
After the pandemic caused major disruptions to the hospitality industry, hotels and travel seem to be bouncing back. Although hotels haven’t quite reached pre-pandemic levels of occupancy, hoteliers can expect higher rates than last year, according to data collected by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
The trade organization also projected California’s hotels will pay employees a record of more than $15.3 billion in wages, salaries and other compensation in 2024, up from $14.7 billion in 2023 and $13.3 billion in 2019.
However, union members, hotel representatives and experts agree that the picture of post-pandemic recovery is more complicated. Wages have been growing slower than inflation, said Ken Jacobs, co-chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor, meaning hotel workers’ pay has less buying power than it did previously.
During the pandemic, Jacobs added, “companies significantly cut the number of workers, which created a big increase in workload for other employees. As people come back to hotels, the workloads remain much greater.”
This has implications for the health and safety of hotel employees, said Lizzy Tapia, president of UNITE HERE Local 2.
“It’s really about respect,” Tapia said. “We’re fighting for our members who are at home, who no longer have full-time work, and also our members who are currently working and having to do double or triple the amount of work because their coworkers are not here to help them.”
A representative for Hilton San Francisco Union Square said in a statement that the hotel is “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements that are beneficial to both our valued Team Members and to our hotel.”
David Lewin, the general manager of the Grand Hyatt, told KQED that business is not likely to make a full recovery for the next three to five years. He cited a lack of conventions in the area, a decrease in Asian tourists, and less business locally as fewer people commute to the office.
The “less than savory light” cast upon San Francisco’s reputation in recent years hasn’t helped either, he said. Despite those challenges, he said the company remains committed to negotiating.
“We remain ready to be at the table tomorrow,” Lewin said. “Our goal is a mutually satisfactory resolution and a contract that lasts for the next three to five years. And we’re ready to do that whenever the noise stops.”
The union pointed out that Salesforce just held its annual Dreamforce conference — attended by 45,000 people — and that employees waited until it was over to strike. Now that the conference has ended, workers like Janet Wong, a housekeeper at the Hilton, said they will not return to work until better benefits are on the table.
“Our last three-day strike was very strong. That’s why I’m not going to the table for bargaining, Wong said from the picket line. “That’s why we continue. We need to get our benefits.”
They may be joined by thousands of hotel workers across the U.S. who have authorized strikes at Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Omni hotel properties where contract negotiations remain unresolved. Over 10,000 workers in Baltimore, Boston, Honolulu, Kauai, New Haven, San Diego, San Francisco, San José, San Mateo County and Seattle have already gone on strike, and strikes have also been authorized in Oakland and Sacramento, according to a union press release.
KQED’s Gilare Zada contributed to this report.
