Thousands of Marriott hotel workers are on strike in eight U.S. cities in a campaign with the slogan “one job should be enough.” The workers’ union points out that Marriott’s profits have risen by 279 percent since the great recession, while worker pay has gone up only seven percent. “As the largest hotel employer in the world, Marriott can set the standard in the hotel industry,” they write, and that standard should be that one job is enough.
Workers are on strike in Boston, Detroit, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Maui, and Oahu, pressing for contracts that pay them a living wage as well as improving workplace safety through panic buttons for housekeeping staff and a reduction in some of the most grueling physical labor—hotel housekeepers have a very high rate of injury on the job. Workers are also worried about automation and other labor reduction efforts by the company.
Yleine, a room attendant in Vancouver, says in a video that “I’m doing two different jobs because I’m not getting enough hours in my hotel, and don’t have enough time to look after my son. I feel like, still, I can’t make it.”
In Hawaii, other unions got behind the strike, with flight attendants, sheet metal workers, and others moving their business away from Marriott hotels.
