On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, hotel workers at The Westin St. Francis near San Francisco’s Union Square continued their strike into its third month. Carrying picket signs labeled with slogans of “ONE JOB SHOULD BE ENOUGH” and “MAKE THEM PAY,” members of UNITE HERE Local 2 are fighting back against unacceptable conditions proposed by Marriott, which owns the hotel. Approximately 2,500 San Francisco hotel workers organized in UNITE HERE are on strike at several hotels around the city, and hundreds more could walk out at any time after voting to authorize strikes at other hotels in the city.
Drew, a bellman at the Westin St. Francis, said he had only recently started working at the hotel when the strike began, but was concerned about threats to his senior coworkers’ benefits: “there are people who have been working here for 30+ years who now might not have health insurance or retirement plans because the hotel companies are trying to take them away.”
Marriott, negotiating as a bloc with Hilton and Hyatt, has refused to offer an acceptable contract, demanding that workers accept increased workloads, stagnant wages, and the phasing out of crucial benefits such as health insurance. In an effort to undermine the strike and impose these concessions on the workers, Marriott has flown in replacement scabs. According to Drew, these workers are unable to produce the same level of work as those on strike: “[The hotel] is not even 30% as good as before the strike,” said Drew. “If you’re hungry you better get food before because there’s no room service besides cold sandwiches.”
It’s clear the hotel can’t run effectively without the care and experience of the workers who have been there for years. But it is clear Marriott is willing to try and hold out with scabs and a sub-par experience for guests if it means they can reduce their labor costs and increase their profits in the long run. It is unclear what will happen but the members of Local 2 are holding strong thus far, defiantly chanting: “They say go away, we say NO WAY!”
