Unite Here has been bargaining unsuccessfully with Marriott to get a new agreement for mostly former Starwood legacy hotel employees whose contract has expired.
The trade union has roughly 20,000 members who work for Marriott of which close to 8,000 are on strike at 23 hotels in the US severely affecting the service levels at them (you should book away).
You can access Marriott’s website here.
Many of the affected hotels are not able to provide daily housekeeping services or to ensure that hotel’s food and beverage outlets are open per the posted notices on the Unite Here’s website. Hotels, however, have not discounted their daily rates to match these limited services.
Here’s the piece that I wrote earlier about Marriott’s issue with its employees:
Marriott “Green Choice” Or Greedy Choice? (Housekeeping Hours Cut)
Here are the affected hotels:
Detroit
- Westin Book Cadillac Detroit
Boston
- Aloft Boston Seaport
- Element Boston Seaport
- Ritz-Carlton Boston Common
- Sheraton Boston
- W Boston
- Westin Boston Waterfront
- Westin Copley Place
Oakland
- Oakland Marriott City Center
San Diego
- The Westin Gaslamp Quarter
San Francisco
- San Francisco Marriott Union Square
- Palace Hotel
- W San Francisco
- Westin St. Francis Union Square
- San Francisco Marriott Marquis
- Courtyard San Francisco Downtown by Marriott
- St. Regis San Francisco
San Jose
- San Jose Marriott
Various Locations in Hawaii
- The Royal Hawaiian
- Sheraton Maui Hotel
- Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort
- Sheraton Princess Kaiulani
- Sheraton Waikiki
Here are some notices that hotels have posted to the guests (from the Unite Here’s website access here):
Sheraton Princess Kaiulani
Westin San Diego Gaslamp
Moana Surfrider
Marriott San Francisco Union Square
Royal Hawaiian
Conclusion
You cannot argue that these hotel employees shouldn’t earn a fair wage. Even the newly proposed minimum wages in many US cities are not enough to live in places such as Hawaii or San Francisco.
How can you expect hospitality industry employees to provide services if they have to rely on food stamps even when they work full time? How can these hotel companies expect to find talent in the long run to fulfill all the positions if they don’t offer competitive pay?
I have seen comments from friends that have found themselves staying at these hotels during the strike and waking up early due to noisy protests and basically zero services despite paying the full price for the night.
Have a look at the list and book away if you can until Marriott has resolved the issues with their employees. Shouldn’t be too difficult task to do.
