Thousands of Marriott workers strike in 7 cities

Nearly 3,000 Marriott employees went on strike in Hawaii on Monday, compounding a major stoppage of work affecting several cities and hitting the largest hotel chain in the world.

The Hospitality Workers' Union, Unite Here, has stated that 7,700 of its members in seven cities are not at work and are on picket lines, having not entered into new collective agreements with the union. business. The affected hotels operate under the Marriott, Sheraton and Westin brands.

While both parties have progressed on some issues, a spokeswoman for Unite Here said the union and Marriott were still far apart from each other in terms of worker compensation. In total, approximately 12,000 Marriott employees do not have a contract; it is therefore possible that more employees will strike in the coming days.

Workers from Maui and Oahu have joined the workers who have been on strike in recent days in Detroit and Boston, as well as in the California cities of San Diego, San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco. The workers are house employees, waiters, bartenders and other service employees in the hotels..

"We are disappointed that Unite Here has chosen to go on strike for the moment," a Marriott spokeswoman said in an email. "During the strike, our hotels are open and we are ready to provide excellent service to our customers. While respecting the right of our employees to participate in this work stoppage, we also welcome any partner who chooses to continue working. "

As previously reported by HuffPost, union branches in the country have begun to take strike authorization votes in September, when members were frustrated to work under expired contracts. Marriott and the union are negotiating several city-level contracts that tend to include multiple properties.

In Detroit, workers are on strike in one hotel: the Westin Book Cadillac. Nia Winston, President of Section 24 of Unite Here, said 160 workers were on Sunday morning. She thinks it's the first hotel strike in Detroit in 30 years.

Winston said the employees had suffered a salary freeze and several years of minimal increase as a result of the Great Recession. They are now expecting bigger gains considering Marriott's profits and the strength of the economy. Many employees took a second job to make ends meet, she added.

"We are asking to be brought up to Marriott industry standards," said Winston. "We have other union hotels and casinos in town where workers earn at least $ 3 and $ 4 more per hour.

Last month, Marriott posted a $ 610 million profit for the second quarter, up 25% from a year earlier. "Competitively, we have never been better placed," said Arne Sorenson, the company's CEO.

Marriott bought Starwood hotels in 2016 to surpass Hilton as the largest hotelier, with more than 6,700 properties around the world.

Unite Here is hoping that the new contracts will cover more than just increases. The union has made a great effort to force hotels to adopt panic buttons for servants, to reduce the risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault. A spokeswoman for the union said Marriott and the union had made progress on this issue in the contract negotiations.

The union also wants Marriott to address what it sees as improper planning for housekeepers, a problem it attributes in part to Green Choice's program. As recently stated by an employee at HuffPost, rooms often remain unattended for days as Marriott encourages guests to avoid cleaning the premises for conservation purposes. This can vary the number of rooms that a housekeeper needs to clean up day to day.