By INNES COREA

Hotel workers represented by UNITE HERE locals in Boston, Providence, San Francisco, and Honolulu will be taking strike votes in early August. In all, some 13,500 unionized hotel workers may vote to strike in the four cities. An account of pre-vote rallies in the Boston and Providence areas follows below.

Hundreds of workers outside of the Hyatt Regency Boston and Omni Providence came out on behalf of 5500+ organized hotel workers at over 30 hotels, as UNITE HERE Local 26 announced a strike authorization vote for Aug. 6-8. These workers are fighting for wage increases, improved health insurance plans, and better work schedules. The rallies included speeches from workers, union leadership, and local representatives that cheered the crowd on and showed the necessity of fighting the hotel management for the wellbeing of the employees. As most present hotel contracts expire on Aug. 31, the union is ramping up for a potential strike on all the area’s hotels.

UNITE HERE Local 26 represents hospitality workers ranging from cooks, house cleaners, front-desk workers, and many other positions at some of the largest hotels, casinos, and airports in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. According to a Local 26 organizer, the hotel workers of this union represent about 60% of hotel workers in the Boston area, and the union as a whole has strived to be a militant one since the Harvard dining hall workers’ strike in 2016.

Local 26 came out in support of its hotel members by organizing pickets and rallies outside well-known hotels in Boston and Providence. On July 17, many rallied outside the Hyatt Regency Boston. The Regency is the most recently unionized shop under the local, as desk agents, cooks, etc. organized together just one month earlier. A large number of workers picketed outside of the hotel doors with the aid of the nearby Teamsters and IATSE locals. There were strong speeches from workers, union leadership, and local supporters.

Similarly, many came out to the Omni Providence the next day as the union rallied the hotel workers for a potential strike. George Cook, a worker at the Omni Providence for the last 25 years, spoke on how his rent had increased $500 while at the same time his wages hadn’t changed at all. Additionally, after 25 years of full-time work, the hotel had cut his hours to part-time and scheduled new workers as full-time instead.

As day-to-day costs continue to rise for these workers, their main demands are for vital raises over the next four years—they are looking to have a $10 increase so that the lowest paid worker could make $26/hour by 2028—and new health insurance plans without growing premiums. Speakers, like Cook, brought up many other issues as well, such as decreased hours and overburdening workloads, especially for housekeepers.

So far, the hotels have given no response, and some shops have been without a contract since January. But even so, the workers are not being pushed back. As one worker in the Providence area, Shakira Abad Payano, put it, “Nos sentimos bien, estamos ready para irnos a strike. Ellos no nos dan una respuesta, entonces estamos preparados” (i.e., “They’re not giving us an answer, so we’re prepared to go out on strike”). With this continued energy, and further preparation and militancy, Local 26 has a lot to win.

Photo: Hotel workers picket outside the Omni hotel in Providence, R.I., on May 2. (Richard McCaffrey / GoLocalProv.com)