Amid whipping winds and relentless sheets of rain, more than 200 hotel workers on strike gathered at the Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon, wiping water from their eyes and cheering as an organizer bellowed into a loudspeaker.
“Who’s got the power?” he exclaimed.
“U-nion pow-er!” the audience cried.
It has been two months since members of Unite Here Local 2, which represents hospitality workers around the Bay Area, went on strike amid negotiations for improved health benefits, staffing levels and wages at hotels owned by Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott. There are about 2,000 workers on strike currently, and more could join: On Thursday afternoon, 435 workers at the Marriott-operated W and St. Regis hotels will vote on whether to authorize a future strike.
The fight is unfolding in the aftermath of a national hotel downturn during the pandemic, which led to a mass layoff of a million workers and cuts to amenities like room service and daily housekeeping. However, despite a nascent bounceback in travel and bookings, Unite Here leadership say that hotel owners have been sluggish to re-hire workers and address benefits for the future.
It’s why the union triggered strikes in 12 cities around the U.S. in September. Local 2 began the strike at three hotels, then expanded to two other properties in October. San Francisco is the only city where workers remain on strike.
“Right now, nothing’s really moving in bargaining. One of our basic demands is to maintain our medical benefits. That’s something that, after 60 days of striking, the hotel bosses still have not committed to do,” Lizzy Tapia, president of Unite Here Local 2, told Gazetteer SF.
The rainy march on Wednesday was the first major rally since late October, when several union members were arrested for blocking the street. No such controversy unfolded yesterday as the rally wound through the streets of Downtown, with the sound of chants and honks from vuvuzelas reverberating against concrete.
But striking workers have found other ways to keep up the energy and public attention over the last month, including by picketing all night long at key properties. Gazetteer visited one such sleepover party for the graveyard shift — complete with people gathering to gossip, play music, and sip a lot of hot drinks.
On Tuesday night this week, about 20 people lined the entrance of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, pacing with signs or just huddling on folding chairs along the sidewalk. Bookmarking the hotel’s driveway were two drummers, banging on two smashed steel barrels that looked straight out of a warzone. Others chose to commandeer pots taped to plastic buckets. One man even brought a loudspeaker, which he used to play the sound of an airhorn over and over, like a terrible DJ at a rap show.
Then, at 9:59 p.m., a voice rang out from down the sidewalk: “One minute!”
The noise subsided, in deference to the city’s 10 p.m. noise ordinance. But nobody left the premises. They were committed for the night.
I ran into Luisa Romero, 72, as she returned to the picket after grabbing a late dinner at Halal Guys across the street. A dishwasher at the Hilton for the last 36 years, she bemoaned how the company was failing to provide a fair future for the essential workers who make hotels run, especially after the trauma of losing work in the pandemic.
“We were badly affected. It was such a long time that things were closed, it was so hard to find work that many of us were applying for unemployment. It was the only thing we could do,” Romero told Gazetteer in Spanish.
Romero was part of the strike in 2004, when Unite Here ran into similar claims that hotels could not afford to extend medical benefits or raise wages in the post-9/11 hotel downturn.
“Just like in 2004, it is the same fight. You have to keep pushing for your own benefits. What are we supposed to do? Hotel work is hard work,” she said while leaning back in her chair with a sigh.
Arlin Castillo, 36, a steward at Hilton since 2009, told me that hotel owners are “abandoning” workers on the cusp of an economic recovery in the hospitality sector. Hotels are using fewer employees to manage increased workloads, all while denying fair raises, he said.
Castillo is struggling financially because of the strike; union members often rely on modest communal strike funds to cover rent and essentials. But he’s also dedicated to holding out for a better contract and has spent weeks on the picket line, despite the lack of an end date.
“The first thing is medical benefits. But it’s also about the salaries we need to survive,” Castillo told Gazetteer in Spanish. “The base wage isn’t good enough given the cost of rent, transportation, all the essentials we need. That’s why you see all of us out here, through the middle of the night.”
Local 2’s Tapia acknowledged that recent economic crashes in America have had major impacts on the hospitality industry, but also stressed that hotels have historically recovered well, including after the 2008 recession.
“SF is a resilient city that has always come back,” Tapia told Gazetteer. “And what we’re not hearing in negotiations from hotel bosses is that they can’t afford to pay our medical benefits. They’re not saying that. They’re saying they don’t want to.”
Tapia says that the union has offered a unique compromise: If the hotels truly cannot manage the impact of increasing benefits, wages and hiring, and remain uncertain about the so-called Downtown “doom loop,” Local 2 is willing to defer raises and accept a profit-share model that splits earnings in the future. The offer is part of the union’s “Bet on SF” campaign, urging employers to operate in good faith and stimulate the hotel comeback through investment, not cuts.
Industry experts, too, suggest that hotels are set for a substantial bounce-back. Even struggling hotels are now targets for aggressive acquisitions and hungry investors, who could see major profit growth in just a few years. The union warns that a longer strike could jeopardize that recovery in the city.
At one point on Tuesday night, some young tourists walking out of the Hilton paused at the picket line.
“We’re from Switzerland! We have no idea what this is about,” offered one man. Kevin O’Connell, a “mostly retired” longtime organizer with Local 2, jumped at the opportunity to educate.
“Leave it to Hilton to not tell you while taking your hard-earned cash and giving you less than ever for it,” O’Connell quipped with a sarcastic grin.
Dressed in a shining royal-blue Local 2 jacket, O’Connell held court with the Switzerland squad, handing out fliers and slinging winking insults at Hilton. The group departed after several minutes of questions, waving goodbye in appreciation.
“It’s the same fight as 20 years ago. Maybe what’s changed is the idea that, somehow, owners and shareholders don’t have enough already,” O’Connell told Gazetteer. “But the agreement we secured then has made them a fortune over the decades.”
He paused for a second, then laughed.
“They need to come to terms with us and get back to making money,” O’Connell said.
