With two cities hit by hotel worker walkouts this week, many travel advisors and meeting planners are holding their breath and praying for a settlement before their clients are affected.
In Boston, the nearly 700 employees of the Omni Parker House and Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport began a strike that will last until their demands are met, according to UNITE HERE Local 26. They join more than 600 workers already on strike at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza and Hilton Boston Logan Airport.
Workers from other properties may join the strike at any time and for any duration, the union said, and strikers will staff picket lines outside the hotel entrances 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Seattle also is dealing with striking workers, but only until October 19, at the Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport and Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Centre.
Meeting planners whose groups are headed to the affected properties “need to be in immediate touch with the GMs and CSMs of the hotels in which their meetings are contracted AFTER they check their contracts carefully to determine whether hotel worker strikes are covered under force majeure or other clauses,” meetings industry consultant Joan Eisenstodt told TRO. “Determine how the hotel will be staffed and if those attending and servicing your meetings (AV companies and other workers who may service your meeting or the hotel) will cross picket lines. Take nothing for granted.”
Across the country, more than 5,000 hotel workers are on strike at Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Omni hotels, including front desk agents, housekeepers, bellhops and doormen, cooks and servers and bartenders. They are demanding higher wages and complaining their workloads have gotten out of hand due to Covid-era staff cuts.
Hotel strikes also continue in Honolulu, New Haven, Providence, San Diego, and San Francisco. The union is urging travelers not to eat, meet, or sleep at any hotel that is on strike.
Unite Here represents workers in hotels, casinos, and airports across the United States and Canada.
