波士顿酒店员工罢工，呼吁提高工资以应对高昂的生活成本

【中美创新时报2024 年 9 月 2 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）周日，近 900 名波士顿酒店员工与全国各地数千名酒店业员工一起在纠察线上抗议，要求提高工资和改善工作条件，因为他们未能与全国各大连锁酒店达成新的劳动协议。《波士顿环球报》记者John Hilliard对此作了下述报道。

Unite Here 工会表示，包括波士顿在内的八个城市的希尔顿、凯悦和万豪酒店的 10,000 名酒店员工于周日罢工。工会表示，罢工预计将持续两三天，呼吁扭转酒店业在疫情期间裁员的局面，目前该行业尚未恢复到疫情前的水平。

工会表示，普罗维登斯、纽黑文、巴尔的摩和加利福尼亚州奥克兰的酒店也已获准罢工。工会表示，该工会代表约 40,000 名酒店员工，他们的合同将于今年到期。

据 Unite Here Local 26 发言人 Lynette Ng 称，在波士顿，希尔顿波士顿公园广场酒店、希尔顿波士顿洛根机场酒店、汉普顿波士顿海港酒店和费尔蒙科普利广场酒店的数百名员工于周日凌晨 5 点开始罢工。该工会代表马萨诸塞州和罗德岛州的酒店员工，包括波士顿的罢工酒店员工。她说，他们预计将停工至周二晚上 11 点。

据伊娜·马尔多纳多（Inna Maldonado ）称，波士顿的罢工是在夏季旅游旺季的最后一个周末中旬发起的，旨在引起公众对酒店员工问题的关注，她是周日在海港酒店外示威的工会成员之一。

“我们必须尽一切努力获得一份新合同，”在海港酒店工作了三年的 Maldonado 说。

希尔顿发言人在一份简短声明中表示，公司将尽一切努力与当地工会保持“合作且富有成效的关系”。

“我们尊重工会和团队成员表达观点的权利，并将继续本着诚意进行谈判，以达成公平合理的协议，这对我们尊贵的团队成员和我们的酒店都有利，”发言人说。

经营费尔蒙科普利酒店的酒店集团雅高周日没有回应置评请求。

在费尔蒙科普利酒店，29 岁的杰罗姆·米切尔 (Jerome Mitchell) 已在酒店担任客房服务 10 年，他说工人们需要在波士顿这样的城市获得生活工资。

“他们没有给我们足够的钱。我们正在努力争取我们需要的钱，也应该得到在波士顿生活的钱，”米切尔说。“我们大多数人必须花一个小时通勤来这里工作，因为他们负担不起和家人一起住在波士顿的费用。”

据美联社查阅的联邦劳工数据显示，美国酒店业雇用了约 190 万人，比 2019 年 2 月减少了约 19.6 万人。

据美国酒店和住宿协会称，该行业本身已从疫情中反弹。据美联社报道，虽然平均酒店客房入住率仍低于 2019 年的水平，但预计每间可用客房的平均收入将达到创纪录的高位，部分原因是房价上涨和客人消费增加。

美国酒店和住宿协会周日拒绝回答《环球报》的问题。

酒店协会临时主席凯文·凯里在给美联社的一份声明中表示，酒店正在尽一切努力吸引员工。

据该协会称，过去六个月，该协会的许多成员都提高了工资，并在工作时间方面提供了更大的灵活性或扩大了福利。但 80% 的成员报告了人员短缺的问题，一半的人表示客房服务是他们最关键的招聘需求。

“现在是酒店员工的绝佳时机，”凯里在给美联社的声明中说。

工会希望在南加州取得近期成功的基础上再接再厉，在多次罢工后，工会在与 30 多家酒店签订的新合同中赢得了大幅加薪、增加雇主养老金缴纳额和公平工作量保障。

当地工会周日在一系列社交媒体帖子中敦促波士顿人不要越过纠察线。

“波士顿的酒店已被预订一空，很忙！酒店员工总是面带微笑，欢迎客人入住我们的酒店。我们不再为维持生计而挣扎，”工会在周日的一篇帖子中说道。

美国参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦和爱德华·J·马基周日分别发表声明支持罢工的工会。

“我与第 26 号地方工会团结一致，因为一份工作就足够了。2018 年，我在威斯汀科普利酒店与第 26 号地方工会一起参加了罢工，现在我支持这些工人争取公平的合同。工会建立了中产阶级，使马萨诸塞州的经济更加强大，”沃伦说。

马基敦促双方本着诚意谈判达成一项新协议。

“@UNITEHERE26 的酒店工人获得了与他们每天提供的一流服务相匹配的工资、福利和保障，”马基说。

波士顿罢工的酒店工人也得到了其他工会的支持，包括卡车司机工会第 25 号地方工会、马登教师工会和大波士顿劳工委员会，后者今年将把其一年一度的劳动节早餐从公园广场酒店搬到街对面的户外场地。

大波士顿劳工委员会主席达琳·隆博斯在一份声明中表示：“酒店高管赚得了前所未有的数百万美元，而波士顿的工人却在为基本生活而挣扎。”

据该工会称，该地区的政治领导人——包括马基和沃伦、美国众议员阿亚娜·普雷斯利、州长莫拉·希利、司法部长安德里亚·坎贝尔和市长米歇尔·吴——也预计将参加周一的劳工早餐会。

吴在周日的一次无关活动中对记者表示，罢工工人和酒店老板之间需要达成协议。

吴说，罢工工人“在家庭仍然非常挣扎的时候，要求体面的工资、[更好的]福利和退休是理所当然的”。

周日，在波士顿，穿着印有工会名称的红衬衫的罢工工人在工作场所外示威。在海港酒店，数十人沿着酒店的车道来回游行，高呼支持工会的口号，敲着鼓，举着呼吁达成新协议的标语。

36 岁的马尔多纳多来自波士顿，她说，工资和工人条件问题在波士顿尤为严重。她在这家酒店工作了三年，作为前台接待员和行李员，她的工资是 28.23 美元——她说，自从她开始工作以来，这个数字就没有太大变化。

她和退休的母亲以及 18 岁的儿子住在一起，她的儿子也在费尔蒙科普利酒店工作。她说，周日，母子俩都在罢工线上。

“感觉太棒了，”马尔多纳多说。“这给了我力量。”

在梁建慈工作了七年的公园广场酒店，梁说，酒店老板从酒店业务中赚了很多钱，但这些财富并没有与员工分享。

“由于通货膨胀，我们需要一份更好的合同，”梁说。“他们不想付钱给我们。”

50 岁的阿尔弗雷多·阿马多 (Alfredo Amado) 在费尔蒙特科普利酒店工作了 18 年，他批评酒店管理层没有与工人达成新的协议。

“酒店没有认真对待我们，”阿马多说。

《波士顿环球报》员工尼克·斯托伊科 (Nick Stoico) 和记者斯蒂芬·韦尔 (Steph Ware) 对本报道做出了贡献。

Boston hotel workers go on strike, call for better wages in face of high cost of living

By John Hilliard Globe Staff,Updated September 1, 2024 

Nearly 900 Boston hotel employees joined thousands of fellow hospitality workers across the country on the picket line Sunday to demand higher wages and better working conditions after failing to broker new labor agreements with the nation’s major hotel chains.

The Unite Here labor union said 10,000 hotel employees at Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott hotels in eight cities, including Boston, went on strike Sunday. The strikes, which are expected to last two or three days, are calling for a reversal of pandemic-era staffing reductions in the hotel industry, which has not yet returned to pre-COVID levels, according to the union.

Strikes have also been authorized at hotels in Providence; New Haven; Baltimore; and Oakland, Calif., the union said. The union represents about 40,000 hotel workers with contracts that end this year, it has said.

In Boston, hundreds of workers at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza, Hilton Boston Logan Airport, Hampton Inn Boston Seaport, and Fairmont Copley Plaza hotels began their strike at 5 a.m. Sunday, according to Lynette Ng, a spokesperson for Unite Here Local 26, which represents hospitality workers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including the striking hotel employees in Boston. They’re expected to remain off the job until Tuesday at 11 p.m., she said.

The Boston strikes, launched in the middle of the last weekend of the city’s summer tourism season, were meant to draw public attention to hotel workers’ issues, according to Inna Maldonado, who was among the union members who demonstrated outside the Seaport hotel Sunday.

“We got to do everything we can to get a new contract,” said Maldonado, who has worked at the Seaport hotel for three years.

A Hilton spokesperson, in a brief statement, said it makes every effort to maintain a “cooperative and productive relationship” with the local union.

“We respect the union’s and Team Members’ right to express their points of view and remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable agreement that is beneficial to both our valued Team Members and to our hotels,” the spokesperson said.

Hospitality company Accor, which operates the Fairmont Copley hotel, did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

At the Fairmont Copley, Jerome Mitchell, 29, who has worked in housekeeping at the hotel for 10 years, said the workers need a living wage in a city like Boston.

“They are not paying us enough money. We are out trying to fight for the money that we need and deserve to live in Boston,” Mitchell said.“Most of us have to commute an hour to work here because they can’t afford to live in Boston with their families.”

The US hotel industry employs about 1.9 million people, which is about 196,000 fewer workers than in February 2019, according to federal labor data reviewed by the Associated Press.

The industry itself has rebounded from the pandemic, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. While average hotel room occupancy rates remain below 2019 levels, average revenue per available room is expected to reach a record high, thanks in part to higher room rates and guest spending, according to the Associated Press.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association declined to answer Globe questions Sunday.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Kevin Carey, the interim president of the hotel association, said hotels are doing all they can to attract workers.

Many of its members have increased wages over the past six months and have offered more flexibility with hours or expanded benefits, according to the association. But 80 percent of its members report staffing shortages, and half have said housekeeping is their most critical hiring need.

“Now is a fantastic time to be a hotel employee,” Carey said in the statement to the AP.

The union hopes to build on its recent success in Southern California, where after repeated strikes it won significant wage hikes, increased employer contributions to pensions, and fair workload guarantees in a new contract with more than 30 hotels.

The local union, in a series of social media posts Sunday, urged people in Boston not to cross picket lines.

“Boston’s hotels have been booked and [are] busy! Hotel workers are the ones who always smile and welcome guests to our hotels. We are DONE with the struggle to make ends meet,” the union said in one posting Sunday.

US senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey supported the striking union in separate statements Sunday.

“I stand in solidarity with Local 26 because one job should be enough. I walked the picket line with Local 26 in 2018 at the Westin Copley, and I support these workers now as they fight for a fair contract. Unions built the middle class and make the Massachusetts economy stronger,” Warren said.

Markey urged the sides to negotiate a new deal in good faith.

“The hotel workers of @UNITEHERE26 have earned the wages, benefits, and protections that match the first class service they provide every day,” Markey said.

The striking hotel workers in Boston also had the support of fellow unions, including Teamsters Local 25, Malden’s teachers union, and the Greater Boston Labor Council, which this year will move its annual Labor Day breakfast from the Park Plaza hotel to an outdoor site across the street.

“Hotel executives are making unprecedented millions while workers right here in Boston struggle with the basics,” Greater Boston Labor Council president Darlene Lombos said in a statement.

The region’s political leadership — including Markey and Warren, US Representative Ayanna Pressley, Governor Maura Healey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, and Mayor Michelle Wu — were also expected to attend the Monday labor breakfast, according to the union.

Wu, speaking to reporters at an unrelated event Sunday, said there needs to be an agreement between the striking workers and hotel owners.

The striking workers “are rightly asking for wages that are decent, for [better] benefits, for retirement, in a time when families are still very much struggling,” Wu said.

On Sunday in Boston, striking workers in red shirts printed with the union’s name demonstrated outside their workplaces. At the Seaport hotel, scores marched back-and-forth across the hotel’s driveway while chanting pro-union slogans, banging on drums, and carrying signs calling for a new deal.

Maldonado, 36, of Boston, said issues of pay and worker conditions are particularly acute in the city. She’s worked at the hotel for three years, and earns $28.23 as a front desk agent and bellman — a figure that hasn’t changed much since she started, she said.

She lives with her retired mother and her 18-year-old son, who also works at the Fairmont Copley hotel. Both mother and son were on the picket line Sunday, she said.

“It feels so great,” Maldonado said. “It gives me strength.”

At the Park Plaza hotel, where Jianci Liang has worked for seven years, Liang said the hotel’s owners make a great deal of money from its business, but that wealth is not shared with its employees.

“We need a better contract because of the inflation,” Liang said. “They don’t want to pay us.”

Alfredo Amado, 50, who has worked at the Fairmont Copley for 18 years, criticized the hotel’s management for not reaching a new agreement with workers.

“The hotel is not taking us seriously,” Amado said.

Nick Stoico of the Globe staff and correspondent Steph Ware contributed to this report.