Strikes begin at top hotel chains as housekeeping staff demand higher wages and daily housekeeping duties

With a task of cleaning up to 17 rooms per shift, Fatima Amahmoud’s job at the Moxy Hotel in downtown Boston can sometimes seem impossible.

Once she found three days of golden retriever hair on the curtains, sheets and carpet. She knew she wouldn’t be able to finish in the 30 minutes she had to spend on each room. The dog’s owner had refused to clean the rooms daily, an option that many hotels encourage as environmentally friendly but as a way to cut labor costs and cope with labor shortages since Covid-19 pandemic.

However, unionized domestic workers waged a fierce fight to restore automatic daily housekeeping at major hotel chains say they are facing unmanageable workloads or, in many cases, fewer hours and reduced income.

The dispute has become a symbol of frustration over working conditions among hotel workers who have been out of work for months due to the pandemic and are returning to an industry struggling with chronic staffing shortages and changing travel trends.

Approximately 10,000 hotel employees are represented by UNITE HERE Alliance went on strike Sunday at 25 hotels in eight cities, including Honolulu, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego and Seattle. Hotel workers in other cities could strike in the coming days as contract negotiations stall over demands for higher wages and a reversal of service and staff cuts. A total of 15,000 workers have voted to authorize a strike.

“We have told the management many times that this is too much for us to bear,” said Amahmoud, whose hotel is among the places where workers have agreed to strike but have not yet left.

Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt’s director of labor relations for the Americas, said the company’s hotels have contingency plans in place to minimize the impact of the strikes. “We are disappointed that UNITE HERE has chosen to strike when Hyatt remains open to negotiations,” he said.

In a statement before the strike began, Hilton said it was “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.” Marriott and Omni did not respond to requests for comment.

The labor unrest is a reminder of the pandemic’s persistent impact on low-wage women, especially Black and Hispanic women, who are overrepresented in face-to-face service jobs. Although women have largely returned to the workforce since bearing the brunt of pandemic-era furloughs — or quitting to take on responsibility of care — that recovery concealed a gap in employment rates between women with college degrees and those without college degrees.

The U.S. hotel industry employs about 1.9 million people, about 196,000 fewer than in February 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 90% of building housekeepers are women, according to federal statistics.

It is the workforce. depends a lot about women of color, many of whom are immigrants and tend to be older, according to UNITE HERE.

Union President Gwen Mills described the contract negotiations as part of a long battle to ensure family-sustaining wages for service workers are on par with those in traditionally male-dominated industries.

“Hospitality jobs are undervalued overall, and it’s no coincidence that women and people of color are disproportionately involved in these jobs,” Mills said.

The alliance hopes to build on its recent success in Southern Californiawhere, after several strikes, the company won significant pay raises, increased employer contributions to pensions and guaranteed fair work in a new contract with 34 hotels. Under the contract, housekeepers at most hotels will earn $35 an hour by July 2027.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association says 80% of member hotels report staffing shortages and 50% say housekeeping is their most important hiring need.

Kevin Carey, the association’s interim president and CEO, said hotels are doing everything they can to attract workers. According to the association’s survey, 86% of hoteliers have increased wages in the past six months.

“Now is a great time to be a hotel worker,” Carey said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.

Hotel staff say the reality is much more complicated.

Maria Mata, 61, a housekeeper at the W Hotel in San Francisco, said she makes $2,190 every two weeks if she works full time. But some weeks she is only called in for a day or two, forcing her to max out her credit cards to pay her bills.

“It’s hard to find a new job at my age. I just have to keep the faith that we will figure this out,” Mata said.

Guests at the Hilton Hawaiian Village often tell Nely Reinante they don’t need their rooms cleaned because they don’t want her to work too hard. She says she takes every opportunity to explain that refusing her services would create more work for the housekeepers.

Since the pandemic hit, UNITE HERE has regained the right to daily automated housekeeping at several hotels in Honolulu and other cities, through contract negotiations, complaint filings or local government ordinances.

But the issue is coming up at many hotels as contracts near their expiration dates. Mills said UNITE HERE is working to find language that makes it harder for hotels to quietly encourage guests to opt out of daily housekeeping.

The US hotel industry has recovered from epidemic Although average occupancy rates remain below 2019 levels, largely due to higher room rates and record guest spending per room, average revenue per available room, a key metric, is expected to hit a record high of $101.84 in 2024, according to the hotel association.

David Sherwyn, director of Cornell University’s Center for Innovative Hospitality Employment and Labor Relations, said UNITE HERE is a strong union but faces an uphill battle over daily housekeeping because hotels see service cuts as part of a long-term budget and staffing strategy.

“The hotels say guests don’t want it, I can’t find people and it’s a huge expense,” Sherwyn said. “It’s a struggle.”

Workers are angry at what they see as moves to squeeze them further out of work as they deal with erratic schedules and low pay. While unionized domestic workers tend to earn higher wages, wages vary widely from city to city.

Chandra Anderson, 53, earns $16.20 an hour as a maid at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor, where workers have yet to vote to strike. She was hoping for a contract that would raise her hourly wage to $20 but said the company’s counteroffer “felt like a slap in the face.”

Anderson, who has been the sole breadwinner since her husband went on dialysis, said they had to move to a smaller house a year ago in part because she couldn’t keep up with her hours at her job. Things have improved since the hotel reinstated daily housekeeping earlier this year, but she still struggles to afford basics like groceries.

Tracy Lingo, president of UNITE HERE Local 7, said Baltimore members are looking for pensions for the first time but the biggest priority is bringing hourly wages closer to those in other cities.

“We’re so far behind,” said Lingo.

— Associated Press writer Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.