Luxury hotel workers in San Francisco have been on strike for 37 days, as at October 28. Workers from the Grand Hyatt, Marriott and Westin hotels are striking for wages, health insurance and retirement benefits.
The striking workers include room cleaners, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and porters.
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Hyatt, which operates the Grand Hyatt San Francisco, counts their profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian made nearly US$21 million (A$31.5 million) last year, including bonuses and stocks.
It would take a room cleaner 335 years to make that much.
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Grand Hyatt hotel worker Anna told Green Left: “Our job is very hard and they need us. We’re demanding what we know we deserve.”
After a previous three-day strike, Hyatt failed put forward reasonable proposals for a “fair contract”. Workers say the proposed contract would move them “backward”, leaving them without enough money for medical benefits, retirement or wages, and would undo the hotel’s workplace standards.
Workers told GL: “We are not going back!”
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