Striking hotel workers chant and beat drums as they demonstrate outside the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston on Sunday.

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Rodrique Ngowi/AP

Thousands of hotel employees began a multi-day strike in several US cities to demand higher wages and more staff. after contract negotiations with the major hotel chains Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott had stalled.

Workers in 25 cities, including San Francisco, Seattle, Greenwich, Connecticut, and Honolulu, walked off the job on Sunday, according to Unite Here, a union that represents hospitality workers across North America. The strikes are expected to last two to three days, organizers said, citing the timing of the strike on Labor Day. Workers in Baltimore, New Haven, Connecticut, Oakland, California, and Providence, Rhode Island, were also prepared to join the strike.

Workers are demanding higher wages and more staff to ease their workload. The union says cuts to staff and guest services that many hotels made during the COVID-19 pandemic have never been reversed.

The American Hotel And Lodging Association (AHLA), the trade association for major hotel operators, said 86% of its member hotels reported wage increases in the first half of this year. Since the pandemic, average wages for hotel employees have increased 26%, the group said.

Many hotel workers say their wages are not enough to live on and they have to work multiple jobs to pay their bills.

“Everyone suffered during COVID, but now the hospitality industry is making record profits while workers and guests are being left behind,” said Gwen Mills, international president of Unite Here. “Many can no longer afford to live in the cities where they host guests, and painful workloads are breaking their bodies. We will not accept a ‘new normal’ where hospitality companies profit by cutting back on what they offer to guests and abandoning their obligations to workers.”

According to AHLA, they are struggling with a labor shortage and occupancy rates have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels. About 80 percent of hotels report staff shortages, while 50 percent cite housekeeping as their biggest staffing need, it says.

Nevertheless, the hotel industry expects record sales this year due to increased room prices and guest spending.

Average revenue per available room is expected to reach a record high of $101.84 in 2024, according to the hotel group.

Steven Hufana, an assistant chef at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, said the staff shortage at his workplace means more work for him and his coworkers. He is one of at least 5,000 employees at seven hotels in the Hawaiian capital who have voted to strike.

“The workload is increasing and we receive little to no support in actually offering good products to guests,” he said.
“We often go home tired and overworked and simply cannot enjoy our life after work.”

Hufana, 41, says when he was hired at the hotel eight years ago, he was able to earn a living wage. But his wages have not kept pace with inflation, he says. He says he has family members in the hospitality industry who have left the island to go to the west coast to earn a living wage.

He had previously worked several jobs to make ends meet. “I’ve fought through all the hardships to make it here, but I shouldn’t have to fight to stay in my place,” he said.

Earlier this year, the union secured major victories for hotel workers in Southern California after months of strikes that began last summer. Workers in 34 hotels won significant wage increases, higher employer contributions to pension insurance and guaranteed fair workloads.

Hyatt said in a statement that the company remains willing to negotiate with the union. “We look forward to continuing to negotiate fair contracts and recognizing the contributions of Hyatt employees,” the hotel operator said. Marriott and Hilton did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Tiffany ten Eyck, a spokeswoman for Unite Here, said negotiations were continuing but the two parties “remain very far apart on the issues most important to hotel workers.”