Workers Strike at Two Hilton Hotels
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Hilton hotel workers are getting gored twice by their Wall Street employer. First, the private equity firm Blackstone Group, which owns the hotel chain, received a $180 million debt bailout from the taxpayers–like hotel workers. Then the company turned around and claimed it could not afford to give workers a decent salary and working conditions.
Blackstone owed about $320 million in debt to the Federal Reserve, but persuaded the Fed to accept just $142 million in payment, sticking taxpayers with the bill for the remaining $180 million.
At the same time, Blackstone is demanding an increase in the cost of emplyee family health care, a freeze on pensions, reduced staffing and increased workloads. Appalled by Blackstone’s blatant greed, workers at two of the largest Hiltons—Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu and Union Square in San Francisco—walked out to demand a fair contract and the respect they deserve.
Hotel Workers’ Faces Show Pride, Determination to Win Justice
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Photojournalist David Bacon has captured the pride and determination in the faces of hotel workers at the downtown Hilton in San Francisco who have spent the past few weeks in a dawn to dusk picket line.
The workers, who chant to guests, “Don’t check in, check out!” are demanding that the hotel’s owners negotiate a new contract with their union, UNITEHERE! Local 2.
San Francisco’s largest hotels are demanding cuts in health and retirement benefits and increased workloads.
A typical San Francisco hotel worker earns $30,000 per year.
These are their faces—all races and ages, together on the picket line.
UNITE HERE Fighting for Hotel Workers Across Nation
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Members of UNITE HERE are walking out and digging in to fight for fair contracts at hotels across the country. Some 650 workers at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco went on strike this morning and will remain out until the first shift on Saturday morning.
Members of UNITE HERE Local 2 voted by a 92 percent to 8 percent margin to authorize strikes at any of the 31 upscale hotels in San Francisco. Despite earning record profits over the past five years, the hotels are using the recession as an excuse to demand changes in eligibility for the employees’ health care plan that would eliminate coverage or put it out of reach for many workers.
UNITE HERE contracts covering some 7,500 workers at 37 hotels in Chicago and 9,000 at 31 San Francisco hotels expired in August. Talks are continuing with the largest employers in each city. The hotel management companies are pressing for contracts that would slash health and retirement benefits and would increase workloads.
