Thousands of hotel workers are on strike from Honolulu to Boston: What you need to know


Ongoing hotel worker strikes affected hotels in major U.S. cities over the Labor Day holiday weekend and into this week.

While those strikes are now beginning to end (more on that below), travelers to several major U.S. cities, including Honolulu, Boston, and San Francisco, should still be prepared for potential disruptions to hotel stays as thousands of hotel workers seek new labor contracts with their employers.

Across the country, unions representing hospitality workers have been negotiating for higher wages, better working conditions and more protections for employees. After many hospitality industry labor contracts expired on August 31, local chapters of Unite Here, a major hospitality-focused union, voted to authorize strikes and approved walkouts until a new agreement is reached.

“People who come to Hawaii save up for months, if not years, to come on vacation and have a certain type of experience, and I think our short-term strike gave our guests a sense of not only what it’s like when there’s a labor dispute, but more importantly, the value of the contributions we make every day to make our hotel successful,” said Cade Watanabe, president of Unite Here Local 5, the union representing striking hotel workers in Honolulu.

Which hotels are considering striking?

Over the Labor Day holiday weekend, more than 10,000 hotel workers went on strike at 23 hotels in eight U.S. cities.

Unite Here 2 (a union representing over 15,000 hotel workers in San Francisco, San Mateo County, and the East and North Bay Areas of California) has provided the following list of hotels where strikes are currently taking place.

The specific details of each strike usually differ depending on the specific ownership or group of workers striking.

It’s also worth noting that the details of the strike are subject to change at any time and that more strikes may be announced in due time. The national organization Unite Here noted Monday that strikes have been authorized and “could begin at any time in New Haven.” [Connecticut]Oakland, [California] and Providence, [Rhode Island].”

City Strike dates Affected Hotels
Boston From September 1st to 3rd Fairmont Copley Plaza

Hampton Inn Boston Harbor District

Homewood Suites by Hilton Boston Seaport District

Hilton Boston Logan Airport

Hilton Boston Park Plaza

Greenwich, Connecticut From September 1st to 3rd Hyatt Regency Greenwich
Honolulu From September 1st to 3rd Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort

Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa

The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, Waikiki (Marriott)

Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (Marriott)

Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort (Marriott)

Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa

Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach (Marriott)

Kauai, Hawaii From September 1st to 3rd Sheraton Kauai Resort (Marriott)
San Francisco From September 1st to 3rd Grand Hyatt at SFO

Grand Hyatt San Francisco

Hilton San Francisco Union Square

The Westin St. Francis San Francisco at Union Square (Marriott)

Palace Hotel, a Luxury Collection hotel, San Francisco (Marriott)

San Diego September 1st and 2nd Hilton San Diego Bayfront
San Jose, California From September 1st to 3rd Hotel DoubleTree by Hilton San José

Hilton San Jose Signia

He Fair Hotel Website has a tool where you can put in your destination and see a list of hotels that are “at risk” of being impacted, as shown in the image of Honolulu below.

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HOTEL JUSTICE

This is a constantly evolving list, so it is highly recommended that you check the Fair Hotel website if you plan to stay in any of these areas in the near future.

If you are concerned that your hotel may be affected by the strikes, consider reaching out to the hotel directly to confirm what is happening and determine your options for canceling or rebooking. The hotel can also mention any contingency plans that are in place for guests who must stay at the property.

Please note that while strikes may be imminent, hotels are not necessarily required to inform guests about disruptions, even if they severely disrupt the overall hotel experience (i.e. no housekeeping or closed restaurants).

What happens if my hotel is on strike?

If hotel workers go on strike during your trip or vacation, it can throw a wrench into your plans. So, there are a few things you should know about this situation.

First, while a striking hotel may technically be open, it will likely be operating with an extremely reduced staff and basic operations that will significantly impact your stay, especially at full-service resorts with multiple restaurants, beach services, and the like. At the hotel, striking workers will likely be outside picketing rather than inside doing their regular daily work.

In 2018, during a major strike at Marriott hotels across the United States, TPG readers who had stayed at striking Hawaiian hotels told TPG that they had experienced “terrible service,” received no compensation, and felt the situation “ruined” their Hawaiian vacation. Others reported switching hotels after experiencing firsthand how poor the service was.

Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt’s vice president of labor relations, Americas, told TPG via email that “Hyatt hotels have contingency plans in place to minimize [the] impact on hotel operations related to potential strike activity.”

“Hilton makes every effort to maintain a cooperative and productive relationship with the unions that represent some of our team members, and we remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements that are beneficial to both our valued team members and our hotels,” a Hilton spokesperson told TPG.

The Hilton spokesperson added that the company is “fully committed to providing guests with our signature hospitality” and that its “hotels have contingency plans in place to ensure operations continue to run as smoothly as possible.”

Representatives for Marriott and Accor did not respond to a request for comment before publication time.

While not absolutely necessary, if your hotel is on strike, it is highly recommended that you consider rebooking at a hotel that is not in the middle of a labor dispute. This can help preserve your trip or vacation by ensuring access to all the amenities and services you would expect from a hotel and preventing striking workers from accusing you of crossing picket lines.

For travelers who might be affected, Unite Here has Created a guide to prepare for hotel strikes:

“A strike means that workers who would normally clean your room, scrub your bathroom, change your sheets, cook your food, and help you with your bags are instead picketing outside the hotel,” the guide said. “Hotels may suspend services as they try to operate with minimal staff, and pickets will extend outside the hotel for up to 24 hours a day. Do not eat, congregate, or sleep in a hotel that is on strike.”

If you booked a hotel directly, call your hotel as soon as possible and see if you can cancel your stay. Even if you booked a non-refundable room, let the hotel know that you’ve learned of the situation and that you want a bona fide refund without any cancellation fees or penalties.

Before rebooking, find out which other hotels in the area might also be on strike to avoid a similar situation.

If all else fails and you feel like your trip is falling apart, it may be time to turn to your travel insurance policywhether booked independently, through a hotel, or as part of your credit card, to determine if a hotel strike is covered under your specific policy.

Why hotel strikes are ending, for now

While the current round of strikes is coming to an end, it’s impossible to say how long the threat of future strikes will linger in the U.S. travel orbit. Unite Here local unions will hold out as long as necessary to achieve a contract that makes sense for employees who are “calling for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts.” But for now, the strikes are significantly less disruptive to hotel operations than a 2018 hotel workers’ strike, in which more than 7,700 workers at 23 Marriott-affiliated hotels in the U.S. from October through early December of that year went on strike.

“We’ll see what happens, but we wanted to do everything we could to be able to speak out against the systemic issues we’re facing everywhere, with limited staff and Covid-era cutbacks,” Watanabe said. “But most importantly, we’re in the hospitality business. We want our guests to come back.”

“Our strikes are also about customers and we need our employers to respect us and our customers,” he continued. “We’re willing to do whatever it takes to win, obviously, and we’ll see what happens over the next few days and months in terms of what that should look like.”

This means that with contracts expiring and the threat of future strikes, there could be potential disruptions to hotels during the busy autumn travel season. But there is still time to reach an agreement before the worst-case scenario emerges.

“Our colleagues are the heart of our company and Hyatt has a long history of cooperation with the unions that represent our employees, including Unite Here,” said D’Angelo. “We remain optimistic that mutually beneficial agreements can be reached without the need for strikes and look forward to continuing to negotiate fair contracts and recognize the contributions of Hyatt employees.”



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