2:35 PM: Hotel workers in San Francisco began a three-day strike this morning and are picketing outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in Union Square after months of contract negotiations with hotel management failed to produce agreements.
More than 300 workers are taking turns picketing outside the hotel, located at 345 Stockton St., said Ian Lewis, a spokesman for Unite Here Local 2.
The union represents about 12,000 employees in the hospitality industry in San Francisco and on the Peninsula, including room cleaners, cooks, food servers, bellmen, bartenders and dishwashers.
Union officials said hotel management is proposing unreasonable reductions in health and retirement benefits.
Lewis said about 340 workers at the hotel will be participating in the strike and will be taking turns picketing 24 hours a day over a three-day period.
The workers will return to work Sunday morning, but are calling on customers to honor an ongoing boycott of the hotel. Union workers at other San Francisco hotels remain on the job, but job actions elsewhere still remain a possibility.
Negotiations have been going on for more than two months, and workers have been without a contract since Aug. 14.
Officials with the Grand Hyatt San Francisco released a statement about the strike.
“We are disappointed with the action taken today by Local 2. After only five bargaining sessions the union has decided to engage in disruptive and counterproductive action instead of trying to achieve progress at the negotiating table,” hotel management said.
“It is not in anyone’s best interest to try to damage the hotel guest experience, disrupt our associates and purposefully do economic harm to the city of San Francisco,” the statement read.
The union is negotiating separately with each of the 31 hotels where its members work, including those owned by Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Intercontinental.
Mike Casey, president of Unite Here Local 2, said in a statement that the strike is “intended to send a clear signal to this corporation that they cannot use a temporary downturn to permanently drive down workers’ living standards.”
The Hyatt Hotels Corp. opened for trading on the New York Stock Exchange today after its initial public offering raised $950 million, and union officials said some of that money should go to the workers.
Aurolyn Rush, a telephone operator at the Grand Hyatt for 13 years, said in a statement that “Hyatt’s cashing out almost a billion dollars for its owners, but at the same time they’re pushing to make health care unaffordable for me and my family?”
Union officials say they are trying to reach a settlement with between a 1 and 2 percent increase in labor costs, and say management is trying to win permanent takeaways in health coverage and retiree coverage.
The statement released by the Grand Hyatt said the company is “guided in these negotiations by our respect and appreciation for our people, who deserve competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits and an excellent work environment. We should be spending our time trying to reach an understanding and not trying to create more dissention.”
9:49 AM: Hotel workers in San Francisco started a three-day strike this morning and are picketing outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in Union Square after contract negotiations with hotel management failed to produce agreements, a union spokesman said today.
About 100 workers were picketing this morning outside the hotel, located at 345 Stockton St., said Ian Lewis, a spokesman for Unite Here Local 2.
The union represents about 12,000 employees in the hospitality industry in San Francisco and on the Peninsula, including room cleaners, cooks, food servers, bellmen, bartenders and dishwashers.
Lewis said about 340 workers at the hotel will be participating in the strike and will be taking turns picketing 24 hours a day over a three-day period.
The workers will return to work Sunday morning, but are calling on customers to honor an ongoing boycott of the hotel. Union workers at other San Francisco hotels remain on the job, but job actions elsewhere still remain a possibility.
The union is negotiating separately with each of the 31 hotels where its members work, including those owned by Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Intercontinental.
Mike Casey, president of Unite Here Local 2, said in a statement that the strike is “intended to send a clear signal to this corporation that they cannot use a temporary downturn to permanently drive down workers’ living standards.”
Workers have been without a contract since Aug. 14.
