SAN JOSE — Housekeeping, greeting services and shuttle service at many hotels here and abroad got here to a near standstill Sunday as some 40,000 hotel staff participated in a three-day strike over stalled collective bargaining negotiations.
Together, the pickets expressed a sentiment that has been heard in lots of industries because the starting of the Covid-19 pandemic: that staff shortages are resulting in burnout amongst employees and that pay and advantages are insufficient to compensate for this.
The staff, represented by the regional branches of the national union UNITE HERE, participated within the collective strike, although their bargaining situations are different. Each hotel worker negotiates individually with the corporate management.
They marched in picket lines, beating drums and chanting slogans, demanding higher contracts at Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Omni hotels across the country.
In San Jose, greater than 100 staff began picketing near the Hilton DoubleTree and Signia hotels around 5 a.m. Sunday. Most of them, mostly Spanish-speaking, alternated between chanting slogans of their native language and in English.
On June 30, the contracts of two other hotels in San Jose also expired: the downtown Marriott and one other nearby Hilton, but the employees didn’t immediately join the strike.
“We are not fighting against our managers, we are fighting against the corporations – they are the ones who make the decisions,” Ana Rodriguez, a San José resident who has worked in housekeeping for 23 years, told this news organization near the picket line outside the Signia Hotel.
In San Francisco, about 2,000 employees on the Grand Hyatt, the Grand Hyatt Union Square and the Hilton Union Square at the town airport, in addition to two Marriott hotels, the Westin St. Francis and the Palace Hotel, went on strike, in response to union officials. The staff' contracts there expired on August 14.
More demonstrations could also be on the horizon: Union members on the Oakland Marriott City Center and Hyatt House Emeryville have authorized strikes but didn’t take part in this weekend's rallies.
UNITE HERE representatives declined to comment on specific details of contract negotiations at anybody hotel, but some delays are occurring across the board, said Local 2 spokesman Ted Waechter.
“A key issue is reversing COVID-era staff cuts and ending automatic daily room cleaning,” Waechter said in an interview on Sunday. “When there are fewer rooms to clean each day, hotels are cutting housekeeping hours.”
“There is also a workload for rooms that have not been cleaned for several days because they are dirtier,” added Waechter.
In interviews, staff in San Jose said they often have a great relationship with their bosses. The problem, said Mahendra Gandhi, 71, of San Jose, is that “the company doesn't want to put a single penny on the table.”
Dolores Dominguez and her husband each have two jobs for a similar employer – in banquet service on the DoubleTree in San Jose and at Levi's Stadium.
The couple immigrated to the town from Durango, Mexico, 30 years ago and struggled to feed their 11- and 16-year-old children.
“You need the money to pay your mortgage, so you can't take care of your children,” Dolores Dominguez said in an interview. “Companies have the means to pay you more salary.”
UNITE HERE said it hopes to return to the bargaining table with company representatives after the three-day strike ends. Federal law protects staff from firing.
At the rallies in front of each hotels in San José, it was too loud to have normal conversations, but a family of guests standing in front of the DoubleTree was not bothered.
Their more pressing concern: They wanted to search out an Uber to a marriage at one other nearby hotel, because the DoubleTree's shuttle service had come to a halt resulting from the strike.
Dave Arviso, who had traveled from Ventura along with his wife and child, looked up from his phone and said the strike had led to an unintended profit: The hotel's remaining employees gave them a free breakfast because they were too busy that morning to charge them for breakfast.
“It's actually quite nice,” Arviso said of the impact of the strike. “But no housekeeping – that's a bit harsh.”
Originally published:
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