With SF contract win, historic multi-city Marriott strike ends

The following is from UNITE HERE:

SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 4, 2018) — Early Monday morning, 2,500 striking San Francisco UNITE HERE Marriott workers reached a tentative agreement on a contract agreement with Marriott, making San Francisco the eighth and final city to reach a settlement to end the 7,700 worker strikes of Marriott in the past nine weeks. Workers voted by a 99.6 percent majority to ratify the contract.

The settlement in San Francisco marks the end of the largest multi-city hotel industry strike ever — nine weeks after seven UNITE HERE affiliates spanning eight different locations first walked out on strike.

The San Francisco contract, like the settlements in all the strike locations, marks historic wage and benefit increases; pioneering civil rights protections that create a pathway out of poverty via access to good union jobs; sexual harassment protections, including removal and banning of guests who violate women; and a seat at the table for workers as the hospitality industry grapples with automation in hotels. San Francisco strikers will return to work Wednesday morning following the contract ratification.

“Today the historic contract settlement made with Marriott in San Francisco marks the beginning of a new standard for hotel workers in North America, and has made Marriott a leader in the hospitality industry by ensuring that one job is enough for hotel workers to live with dignity,” said D. Taylor, international president of UNITE HERE. “Because of the movement made by Marriott in San Francisco to make one job enough, the largest hotel worker strike in modern American history today has reached an end.”

UNITE HERE represents 270,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada. Learn more at UniteHere.org.