As the dawn of Thursday ushered in the third wave of strikes this month, the streets of Boston bore witness to the latest battleground for hotel workers' rights. Nearly 1,200 employees from the Omni Parker House, Omni Boston Seaport, Renaissance Boston Seaport, and Westin Boston Seaport stood in defiance, laboring not within walls but upon picket lines. Their resolve was echoed by a chorus of support from UNITE HERE Local 26, which has been steadfast in its pursuit of fair wages and work conditions since negotiations began in April, a narrative documented by CBS News.
In what UNITE HERE Local 26 described as an "infuriating" process, the negotiations have yet to bear the demanded fruit of livable wages, fair scheduling, and safe workloads. "These hotels would not be profitable without their employees, who have the skills, experience, and dedication to provide hospitality to guests at the highest level," union president Carlos Aramayo expressed in statements captured by CBS News, and reiterated in a NBC Boston report.
The current upheaval is not isolated to Boston; it's but a single front in a national campaign affecting cities from Baltimore to Seattle. Within Boston's historic walls, where the Omni Parker House stands as the longest continuously operating hotel since the 1850s, employees, many of whom have never before walked a picket line, are now standing in solidarity for change. This sentiment was amplified by Kaba Kamara, a houseperson at the Omni Boston Seaport Hotel, "I am on strike because I need a raise, and the hotel refuses to give us what we’re asking for," as he told WCVB.
The industry at large faces a moment of reckoning, with the American Hotel And Lodging Association citing 80% of its member hotels report staffing shortages, and 50%, state that housekeeping is their most critical hiring need. Despite these statistics, the call for increased wages, a pension, improved benefits, and a rollback of pandemic-era staffing cuts continues to go unanswered by hotel representatives. While hotels like the Omni Boston Seaport, which offers over 1,000 rooms remain understaffed, the union reflects on successes elsewhere, such as the significant wage increases and fair workloads established in southern California, discussed in the WCVB publication.
