Workers at a 6th SF Hotel Join Strike, Ramping Up Pressure as Holidays Loom

The 500 Marriott Marquis workers join nearly 2,000 employees across five other Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels around Union Square who have been on strike since Sept. 22, demanding better from three of the largest hotel chains in the city. A steady stream of strikers has circled the entrances of multiple iconic San Francisco hotels, rain or shine, banging drums, chanting through megaphones, and trading off cooking meals for picketers for more than 70 days.

Waechter said that the strike was spurred by cuts the hotels have been trying to make since workers’ contracts ended in August. He believes that the corporations are looking to cut staff and services to make up for downtown San Francisco’s economic downturn in the wake of COVID-19, which has been slower to rebound than many other major cities.

The union is proposing a different strategy: “betting on SF.”

If the hotels agree to higher wages, reverse their efforts to strip workers’ health care and restore staffing to its pre-pandemic levels, hotel workers say they will forgo guaranteed wage increases, instead making them contingent on how well the hotels do.

“We believe San Francisco is coming back, so much so that we’re willing to make our own pay conditional on your hotel profits increasing, but only if you give us the tools and the staffing that we need to actually give guests the best possible experience,” Waechter told KQED of the union’s bargaining strategy.

But in the most recent negotiations, health care has remained a sticking point, Waechter said.

“They’re still proposing to phase out union health care, which is an absolute nonstarter for us,” he told KQED. “Hotel workers are asking people just to keep the plan that we’ve had for decades, and Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott are trying to take it away.”

Marriott did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Workers are now on strike at the Marriott Marquis, Marriott Union Square, Marriott’s Westin St. Francis and the Palace Hotel — part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection — as well as the Hilton Union Square and Grand Hyatt Union Square.

The union is putting the pressure on as the holiday season looms. The Palace Hotel’s annual afternoon tea with Santa will be affected, Waechter said, since some servers are striking, and out-of-town visitors coming to ice skate at Union Square or peruse Macy’s flagship store — possibly during its final festive season — will have service impacts at many of their usual hotels.

Marriott’s St. Regis and W Hotels in the city also authorized strikes last week and could join the picket line at any time. If they do, it’ll be one of the largest hotel worker strikes San Francisco has had in decades.

Waechter said that’s because the stakes are so high.

It’s “not just the futures of these 2,500 workers who are on strike, but also what the future of San Francisco is going to be,” Waechter said. “How do you approach a downturn in a city … are you going to cut and run, or are you going to double down and invest in a recovery that ultimately will profit everyone?”