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Hundreds of workers strike at four Boston hotels, derailing annual Labor Day breakfast
Local leaders showed their support for the workers at four local hotels, including venue of the annual Labor Day breakfast.
Hundreds of workers at four local hotels went on strike Sunday after their contracts expired at the end of August, which affected the venue of the city’s annual Labor Day breakfast.
Workers at Fairmont Copley, Hilton Boston Park Plaza, Hilton Boston Logan, and Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites Seaport began their strike Sunday morning at 5 a.m., UNITE HERE Local 26 said.
NBC10 Boston reported that 900 workers went on strike after no contract came from months of negotiations since April.
Hotel workers at 35 hotels represented by the union voted to authorize a strike on Friday. Workers at four hotels ultimately went forward with the strike. According to a representative for the union, the strike will end at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
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The spokesperson said the workers will go back to work without a contract after Tuesday as they continue to fight for better wages and fair workloads.
The Hilton Boston Park Plaza was also where the Greater Boston Labor Council’s Annual Labor day breakfast was going to be held, but organizers moved it outside on Columbus Avenue.
“We are changing plans and doing things differently this year,” GBLC President Darlene Lombos said in a statement. “We are going to bring attention to the changes that are needed in the hotel industry, and frankly, so many other industries, where workers continue to be paid far too little as executive compensation goes up and up.”
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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Representative Ayanna Pressley, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Ed Markey, and other politicians appeared at the breakfast and supported the striking workers.
Pressley, a former worker at a Marriott hotel for six years, spoke to the rallying workers at the breakfast.
“I was weary, but I was resolved, because I dreamed of a better life, a different one for me, my mother and our family,” she said.
Hilton and Fairmont did not immediately return requests for comment Monday evening.
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