Members of Local 2 commenced a two week strike this morning at four San Francisco hotels. The hotels include:

• The Argent Hotel
• The Hilton San Francisco
• The Crowne Plaza Union Square
• The Mark Hopkins Inter-Continental

Approximately 1,400 hotel workers in San Francisco went on a 2-week strike this morning, September 29, 2004, against four major hotels in the fight for a fair contract. Eight thousand hotel workers are currently in a fierce struggle with hotels in the Bay Area, including over a dozen of SF’s swankiest establishments.

The contract negotiations affect 8,000 union members at more than 60 hotels and motels amounting to 85% of the industry in San Francisco. UNITE HERE! Local 2 represents cooks, room cleaners, bartenders, bellmen, food and beverage servers, bussers, housemen, PBX operators and dishwashers.

This is part of a national struggle. Hotel workers in Washington, DC and Los Angeles are also currently in contract battles with the same transnational hotel corporations, and an all-out strike in the three cities could happen at any time.

The major demands are:

• Continued comprehensive health care for hotel workers and their families;
• Fully funded pensions;
• Fair wage increases;
• Stopping unscrupulous subcontractors from their abusive treatment of night porters;
• Ending excessive workloads which began after September 11 when the hotel industry responded to a drop in tourism by laying off huge numbers of staff but failed to re-hire workers since tourism rebounded;
• Ensuring union security by protecting the rights of workers in newly developed or acquired hotels to be represented by a union; and
• The ability to bargain again in 2006.

A key issue in the struggle is the right to health benefits. As health care costs go through the roof, major employers in every industry across the country are attempting to pass down health care costs to workers, raising premiums, co-pays, or dropping coverage altogether. The hotels are demanding that workers pay as much as $273 per month in health coverage costs. This would mean a huge pay cut for low-paid workers, who are already struggling to make ends meet.

For hotel workers and other low-wage workers especially, health care coverage is key to their survival. At the same time, this is an issue of tremendous significance for all working people. Every time a union contract loses health coverage, it emboldens all other employers to try to force the same cutbacks on their workforce. 

Support the hotel workers. Never has it been more true that AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL – A VICTORY FOR ONE IS A VICTORY FOR ALL!