San Francisco hospitality workers rally near Union Square as part of nationwide strike
Hundreds of hospitality workers filled the streets near Union Square in San Francisco on Labor Day as part of a nationwide strike.
"We're tired of being ignored. The time to take action is now," Nicholas Javier, a server at Westin St. Francis Hotel, told CBS News Bay Area.
He, along with his coworkers with UNITE HERE Local 2 Union, waved their signs up high and marched outside several hotels in the city.
Javier, who has been a server for a decade, said he and his coworkers are still struggling with the lower wages and higher workloads brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The company's using the pandemic as an excuse for cutting our hours, for giving us insulting proposals and basically disrespecting us every day," Javier said.
Hospitality workers from the Hilton Union Square, Grand Hyatt Union Square, Grand Hyatt SFO and Palace Hotel also walked off the job Monday morning.
"Inflation, and also we are living in the high-cost area, you know. However, the company, they ignore all these things," Bill Fund, who has been cleaning carpets at Hilton Union Square for nearly 30 years, told CBS News Bay Area.
The UNITE HERE Local 2 Union said hotel staffing was down 13% from 2019 to 2022 due to the pandemic. Union advocates said as tourism bounces back, they want hotels to restore staffing to pre-pandemic levels.
"Twice or three times what their normal workload is because these companies, even when occupancy is picking up, are not scheduling workers to go to work. So that means half of our membership, the chunk of our membership are at home, waiting to go back to work and the other half are in the hotels working harder than ever," Lizzy Tapia, president of UNITE HERE Local 2, said.
"I'd like to see the hotel industry reopen those restaurants, reopen those bars, keep those pool hours open, those fitness center hours and to clean your room every day, to return hospitality to what it used to be," she added.
According to the city of San Francisco, they still have a ways to go before tourism is back to what it was pre-COVID. Officials said in 2019, more than 26 million people visited San Francisco. Last year, that number was a little more than 23 million travelers.
However, officials do note that hotel occupancy is on the rebound.
The city went from a low of 13% of hotel occupancy in January 2021 to 79% occupancy last October.
"The important thing for us here in labor and management is to find some kind of medium that takes into account the positions of both sides," William B. Gould IV, a Stanford Law professor and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, told CBS News Bay Area.
He said the timing is right for negotiations, with more people becoming comfortable with travel again, which would mean an increase in demand for hospitality services.
"The pandemic did present great problems for the hotels, and they've had to engage in more technological innovations, reduce the number of workers there," he said. "So, also are the unions representing employees who have been relatively speaking low paid, in the more vulnerable amongst us, two-income families who need to see their living standard improve."
As for the union, members will participate in the final day of the three-day strike. They said they will also plan for more strikes to get their message out there, as contract negotiations are ongoing.
CBS News Bay Area reached out to Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels for comment and got two responses as of Monday afternoon.
A Hilton spokesperson sent this statement below:
"Hilton makes every effort to maintain a cooperative and productive relationship with the unions that represent some of our Team Members. We remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements that are beneficial to both our valued Team Members and to our hotels."
The Hyatt head of labor relations, Michael D'Angelo sent this statement below:
"Our colleagues are the heart of our business, and Hyatt has a long history of cooperation with the unions that represent our employees, including UNITE HERE. We are disappointed that UNITE HERE has chosen to strike while Hyatt remains willing to continue bargaining in good faith. We have a history of offering competitive wages and benefits in each market, including comprehensive health care at little to no cost, as well as retirement savings. We have offered competitive wages, health care and retirement benefits at the hotels that are on strike at this time, and colleague benefits and wages remain unchanged as we negotiate a new agreement. We look forward to continuing to negotiate fair contracts and recognize the contributions of Hyatt employees. Hyatt hotels have contingency plans in place to minimize impact on hotel operations related to strike activity."