Thousands of Hotel employees meantime Are on strike around the country today The walk out began yesterday and it's Expected to last at least another day It's directly impacting 24 hotel Properties around the country operated By Hilton hayatt Marriott and Fairmont Fairmont uh Lauren uh Kori Gurley is a Labor reporter at the Washington Post Covering the story for us Lauren thanks For joining us first off who's striking And why Good morning Amry happy labor day um so The uh there are about 10,000 um workers And eight cities striking at Marriott Hilton and hayatt um that goes from the East Coast cities like Boston to West Coast California San Francisco San Jose San Diego all the way to um Hawaii and So uh they belong to the powerful Hospitality Workers Union Unite Here Which says that Workers are striking for Higher pay increased Staffing and Reduced work loads um the union has Accused the hotels of using Co era Lockdowns as a pretext to permanently Cut costs you know I got to tell you I Was on vacation not too long ago and I Did notice that not only were my towels Not changed which is something that's Happening more and more you know uh but The room wasn't cleaned and now I'm Realizing that that probably was part of These covid era changes that just I
Guess never went away and does that mean Reduced Staffing at a lot of these Hotels Yeah exactly so I spoke to a striking Worker in in San Diego for example Christian carbahal who said that you Know they shut down room service in his In his hotel which means that he's now Working sort of at the gra as a grab and Go attendant at the market at the front Of the restaurant that means he says $800 Less in his pocket every month and Because he's lost most of his tips um so There's all sorts of services that have Been suspended or reduced in hotels Major Hotel Brands around the country Could we see this strike Expand certainly so it's expected to Expand today even um the union has not Said where yet but um there are a number Of other cities that have authorized Strikes we could also see more um hotels Going out on strike in cities that are Already on strike and then okay so what If you're traveling you know a lot of People are on vacation either they Started before Labor Day or they're Extending it past Labor Day um how any Tips for travelers how should they deal With these strikes do they need to Know sure so I would expect that most of The hotels that are on strike will have Many of the hotels will have limited Service you'll have managers picking up
The slack daily housekeeping and Services like Pool and Spa and Restaurants maybe very short staffed and The union Unite Here is actually asking Guests who are scheduled to stay at These hotels to cancel their stays Immediately in solidarity with those Workers and they're asking them to also Demand a full refund Um without a cancellation fee and then What are we hearing from the hotel Operators sure so I I've um you know Gotten comment from Hilton hayatt both Say that they've been willing to Negotiate they are willing to still Negotiate for a fail fair deal for their Workers um we did not receive a response From Marriott all right Lauren Kori Gurley thank you so much thank you
