Thousands of hotel workers to rally in 18 cities ahead of contract
negotiations
Send a link to a friend
[April 29, 2024] By
Doyinsola Oladipo
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unionized hotel workers demanding significant pay
raises will rally on May Day in 18 U.S. and Canadian cities, as talks
are beginning with operators Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide
Holdings and Hyatt Hotels Corp.
Talks will cover about 40,000 workers who look to secure new contracts
for the first time since the pandemic. Workers want to reverse
pandemic-era staffing and service cuts, as well as duplicate the big pay
hikes that organized workers across the nation have been winning in the
recent years.
Demonstrators rallying for raises on May 1, the international workers'
holiday, may face some pressure in markets still recovering from the
pandemic, such as San Francisco and Hawaii, analysts say.
"There have been a series of staffing and service cuts that have led to
both painful working conditions for the workers and reduced services for
the guests," said Gwen Mills, international union president at Unite
Here, which represents nearly 300,000 workers in hotels, casinos, food
service, airports, and more across the U.S. and Canada.
After domestic travel cratered during the pandemic, hotel operators
hiked up room rates in the travel boom that followed. In response,
workers are demanding a larger share of profits.
Workers will march through downtown Boston, Greenwich and several cities
in California. Others in Baltimore, New Haven and Toronto will picket
outside hotels. In Honolulu, workers will rally on the main thoroughfare
in Waikiki.
2023 was a significant year for labor negotiations in the U.S. with
manufacturing, auto and hospitality workers in Las Vegas among those
that landed record contracts as a tight labor market allowed employees
to flex more bargaining power.
The Culinary and Bartenders Unions in Las Vegas, Unite Here affiliates,
said its workers got a 10% wage increase in the first year of its new
five-year contract and a total 32% in raises, a record in its history.
This will be Unite Here's first multi-city contract campaign since 2018,
when about 7,000 Marriott workers went on strike in eight cities. The
union secured substantial wage increases, affordable health care and
protections against sexual harassment, including panic buttons for
housekeepers.
Marriott said in 2018 the renegotiated contract following the strike led
to a roughly 4% rise in labor costs.
[to top of second column] |
Hotel workers march and protest as they continue their strike in Los
Angeles, California, U.S., October 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File
Photo
Negotiations have already started in Washington D.C., Hawaii and
Boston. The union said negotiations will be held with each hotel to
secure an individual contract.
The result of these negotiations could be far-reaching as "non-union
hotels will likely also increase wages to attract and maintain
employees," said Emmy Hise, CoStar Senior Director of Hospitality
Analytics.
"We look forward to negotiating fair contracts with Unite Here
locals across the country that have expiring collective bargaining
agreements this year," said Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt head of labor
relations Americas.
Marriott and Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
The bulk of negotiations are set to take place during the summer,
the union said.
U.S. gross operating profit per room in 2023 increased 8.6%
year-over-year and 0.5% compared to the same period in 2019,
according to commercial real estate analytics firm CoStar.
Hotel staffing per occupied room is down 13% since 2019, the union
said.
U.S. hotel revenue per available room, a key metric in the
hospitality industry, in 2023 was the highest for any year on record
at $97.97, which increased 4.9% from 2022, according to Costar.
Room revenue growth is expected to moderate to 4.1% in 2024.
Hilton's U.S. room revenue fell 0.4% during the first quarter.
In San Francisco, "profitability for hotel owners is still way off
of 2019 levels, so hotel owners will be very reluctant to give an
inch to the unions as they really can’t afford to do so," said
Patrick Scholes, Truist Equity Analyst.
The same may hold true for lodging Real Estate Investment Trusts, a
growing share of hotel owners, who are concentrated in union markets
and have operating margins that are under pressure due to higher
costs.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; additional reporting by
Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; editing by Peter Henderson and Aurora
Ellis)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |