Los Angeles (USA), Sep 1 (EFE).- Some 10,000 workers at luxury hotels began a strike on Sunday in major tourist cities in the United States after months of negotiations between unions and hotel companies to reach an agreement to improve their wages failed.
The strike, which coincides with the Labor Day holiday, which is celebrated tomorrow in the US and when millions of people take advantage of the opportunity to travel, affected some Mariott, Hyatt and Hilton hotels in at least eight cities in the country, including the state of Hawaii.
The workers are “demanding higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and a reversal of COVID-era cuts,” United Here, the union representing the group that covers receptionists and cleaning workers, among others, said in a statement.
The salaries workers receive “are not enough to cover the cost of living, and many have to work two jobs to make ends meet,” the statement added.
The union said many of these hotels “took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to cut staff and guest services,” leading to staff and revenue cuts and creating “painful conditions for those bearing the heaviest workload.”
And all this while room rates are at an all-time high, with operating profits of more than $100 billion in 2022, the document states.
(c) EFE Agency
