Hundreds of workers at four Boston hotels went on strike this past weekend, the second wave of hotels to do so in two weeks.
Workers at the Moxy Boston Downtown, The Newbury Boston, W Boston and The Dagny Boston participated in a three-day strike that commenced on Sept. 12.
Dusu Kuyateh, a housekeeper at W Boston, is the only member of her family who works. She said she and her fellow workers are striking and asking for more money “because we deserve it.”
“I will consider doing housekeeping until I retire, but when I check my bank account, it says zero,” Kuyateh said. “So what am I working for?”
UNITE HERE Local 26, which represents workers in the hospitality industry across Massachusetts, authorized a citywide hotel strike with a 99% vote on Aug. 8, according to a press release. Hotel strikes could commence once contracts expired on Aug. 31.
On Sept. 1, more than 10,000 hotel workers from 24 establishments in nine cities across the country went on strike. Hilton Park Plaza, Hilton Boston Logan Airport, Hilton-Hampton Inn Boston Seaport District and Fairmont Copley Plaza workers participated in the strike, which lasted three days, according to a press release from Local 26.
Workers from the 36 Boston hotels who authorized the strike have not negotiated new contracts since the COVID-19 pandemic, UNITE HERE Local 26 Spokesperson Lynette Ng said. The union and hotels agreed to two-year contract extensions in 2022 to help the hotels recover from the pandemic.
With the contract extensions, workers received minor raises, but all other working conditions remained the same, Ng said.
Local 26 has a history of successful labor strikes, including a 46-day strike at Marriott Hotels in 2018, according to an August press release. Kuyateh said the W Hotel, which is owned by Marriott, is familiar with the success of the 2018 strike and should know what to expect from the union.
“[The hotels] know what we did in 2018, so I’m pretty sure they’re not going to allow that to happen again,” Kuyateh said.
The Moxy is in the “unique” position of not having a staff cafeteria, Ng said. Rather than provide meals to workers in-house, the hotel gives workers $4 per workday for food, which Ng said is “not enough.”
Price inflation has impacted many hotel workers’ need for higher food compensation.
Fatima Amahmoud, a housekeeper at the Moxy, said she used to pay around $200 per week for food. Now, she pays $400 to $500 per week, but the money the Moxy provides does not match the rise in grocery prices.
“Everybody has more money, more wages, and we still have the same,” Amahmoud said. “How can we live?”
Moxy staff work eight-hour or whole-day shifts and only receive a 30-minute break, Amahmoud said. Some housekeepers do not take a break when they have a lot of rooms to clean, because no matter the workload, they “need to finish,” she said.
Carlos Aramayo, president of UNITE HERE Local 26, wrote in a statement to The Daily Free Press that during the pandemic, hotels “conditioned” guests to not have their rooms cleaned daily by putting up “Do Not Disturb” signs outside their doors.
When a room attendant is assigned to check a room with a “Do Not Disturb” sign, that room is often replaced with a room guests have just checked out of, which Aramayo wrote are “generally much dirtier and take much longer to clean, especially if they haven’t been cleaned daily.”
“We’re fighting for language in the new contract that would fix this issue, make workloads more sustainable, and prevent injuries on the job,” Aramayo wrote.
Kuyateh said she enjoys doing her job, but she and other workers deserve to be compensated fairly for it.
“I really love it when I clean my room and let my guests walk in to feel like this room is just for them to make them feel welcome,” Kuyateh said. “The fact that [the hotels are] not appreciating what we do for them drives me crazy.”
Kuyateh said the workers are going on strike “to set the record” and show the hotels they are prepared to negotiate a fair contract. She said these citywide, three-day strikes are like “baby” steps.
“This is practice,” Kuyateh said. “No matter how far they’ll go, we’ll go more than them.”
Hotels need to pay employees a living wage. How many hire ups are getting bonuses while not giving others raises?