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Thousands of hotel workers launch strike after talks stall with top chains

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Thousands of hotel workers launch strike after talks stall with top chains

Hotel workers on strike chant and beat drums while picketing outside the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel on Sunday in Boston.

Rodrique Ngowi/AP


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Rodrique Ngowi/AP

Thousands of hotel workers began a multiday strike in several cities across the U.S. to press for higher wages and increased staffing after contract negotiations with major hotel chains Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott stalled.

Workers walked off the job on Sunday in 25 cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Greenwich, Conn., and Honolulu, said Unite Here, a union representing hospitality workers across North America. The strikes are planned to last between two to three days, organizers said, noting the timing of the strike happening on Labor Day. Workers in Baltimore, New Haven, Conn., Oakland, Calif., and Providence, R.I., were also prepared to join the strike.

Workers are demanding higher wages and more staffing to ease their workload. The union says that cuts to staffing and guest services that many hotels made during the COVID-19 pandemic were never restored.

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The American Hotel And Lodging Association (AHLA), the trade group representing major hotel operators, said that during the first half of this year 86% of its member hotels reported increased wages. Since the pandemic, average wages for hotel workers have risen 26%, the group said.

Many hotel workers say their pay doesn’t meet the cost of living, and that they have to work multiple jobs to pay the bills.

“During COVID, everyone suffered, but now the hotel industry is making record profits while workers and guests are left behind,” said Gwen Mills, international president of Unite Here. “Many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to, and painful workloads are breaking their bodies. We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers.”

AHLA says it’s navigating a labor shortage and that occupancy rates have not caught up to pre-pandemic levels. Some 80% of hotels report staffing shortages, while 50% cite housekeeping as their greatest hiring need, it said.

Even so, the hotel industry expects to see record high revenue this year due to increased room rates and guest spending.

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Average revenue per available room is projected to hit a record $101.84 in 2024, according to the hotel group.

Steven Hufana, who works as a prep cook at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, in Honolulu, said a shortage of employees at his workplace has meant more work for him and his colleagues. He’s among at least 5,000 workers at seven hotels in the Hawaiian capital who voted to authorize strikes. 

“The workload becomes increased and we just have little to no support to actually put forth good product for the guests,” he said.
“Often times, we go home tired, overworked and we just can’t even enjoy our lives after work.”

Hufana, 41, says that when he was hired by the hotel eight years ago, he was able to make a living wage. But his wages haven’t kept up with inflation, he said. He says he has family members in hospitality that have left the island to go to the West Coast to earn living wages.

Having previously worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, he said, “I pushed through the struggles just to make it here, but I shouldn’t have to struggle to stay in place.”

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Earlier this year, the union secured major gains for hotel workers in Southern California after months of striking that began last summer. Workers at 34 hotels won substantial pay hikes, increased employer contributions to pensions and fair workload guarantees.

In a statement, Hyatt said it remains willing to negotiate with the union.We look forward to continuing to negotiate fair contracts and recognize the contributions of Hyatt employees,” the hotel operator said. Marriott and Hilton did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Tiffany Ten Eyck, a spokesperson for Unite Here, said negotiations will continue, but that the two parties “remain very far apart on the issues that matter most to hotel workers.”

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FAQ: As Trump inauguration moves inside, what to know on the last-minute changes

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FAQ: As Trump inauguration moves inside, what to know on the last-minute changes

President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony is moving indoors to the Capitol rotunda due to a freezing blast of artic temps expected in D.C., he announced Friday.

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said he ordered Monday’s inauguration to be moved inside. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies said in a statement that they’ll honor his request.

Of course, this last-minute change is having a major impact on everything from security to the thousands of spectators who booked hotel rooms and bought tickets to inaugural events.

Why is Trump’s second inauguration being held inside?

The D.C. area will be plunged into extreme cold as a piece of the polar vortex — an area of cold air that swirls around the Earth’s poles — brushes by the region.

Following some fresh snow during the day on Sunday, this extra-frigid air will move in Sunday night into Monday morning. Inauguration Day is often cold, but Monday looks to be especially brisk. The high is expected to be roughly 20°, with a low of 6°.

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“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way. It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th (In any event, if you decide to come, dress warmly!).”

What parts of the 2025 inauguration will be inside?

Trump’s swearing-in ceremony will be conducted in the rotunda, where he will also deliver his inaugural address.

“The various Dignitaries and Guests will be brought into the Capitol. This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Capital One Arena in downtown D.C. will open for people to watch the ceremony and inaugural address on live video.

Then, instead of the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, the president will join supporters at Capital One Arena after his speech.

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“We will open Capital One Arena on Monday for LIVE viewing of this Historic event, and to host the Presidential Parade,” Trump posted on social media. “I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In.”

Outdoor areas on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, which were intended for tickets guests, will now be closed to those guests Monday, Capitol police said in a statement.

What’s staying the same?

Trump said in his post that other events would stay the same, including the victory rally at Capital One Arena scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m.

He is still expected to attend three official inaugural balls Monday night.

If people had tickets to the inauguration, will they be able to use them at Capital One Arena?

Some 240,000 people hold tickets to attend inauguration on Monday. However, Capital One arena only can hold 20,000 people.

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News4 is still waiting for information as to what’s going to happen with those ticket holders. As of late Friday afternoon, several congressional social media accounts said they didn’t yet know and that ticket holders should keep checking back.

Will the inauguration security perimeter change?

That’s not yet clear. The U.S. Secret Service tells News4 they have contingency plans for matters like this. They said they may hold a news conference later Friday night or Saturday to go over the changes.

Trump is holding a rally at Capital One Arena on Sunday afternoon, the day before inauguration. As of late Friday afternoon, there was limited fencing set up around the arena. It’s unclear if that will now change.

There may also be a contingency plan being worked on, in case protesters go to the arena after Trump is sworn into office.

Are the planned Metro station closures still happening?

As of late Friday afternoon, Metro officials couldn’t say yet if there were any plans to change the number of Metro stations to be closed or to cancel those closures now that there won’t be a parade.

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The Gallery Place station next to Capital One Arena has entrances on H and F streets NW. Up until now, there were no plans to close those entrances outside the arena.

What other changes will have to happen?

It’s not just Metro and the Trump team that have to change everything. City leaders in D.C. have a lot of things that they have to now figure out.

There are 4,000 police officers coming in from around the country to line the parade route. Those officers will still be used because they still have to help watch the District to ensure everything is safe and to secure the areas around the inaugural balls.

When was the last time the inauguration was held inside?

President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985 was held indoors due to a wind chill of -20°. It remains the coldest inauguration on record, with a high temperature of just 7°. The parade was also canceled that year, according to NBC News.

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

This article is also a weekly newsletter. Sign up for Race/Related here.

In the wake of the devastating fires in Los Angeles, many people are referencing the work of the science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Butler, who grew up in Pasadena, was the daughter of a housekeeper and a father who was a shoeshiner. She went on to become the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur “genius” award. Her book “Parable of the Sower,” published in 1993, paints a picture of a California ravished by the effects of climate change, income inequality, political divisiveness and centers on a young woman struggling to find faith and the community to build a new future.

The phrase “Octavia tried to tell us,” which began to gain momentum in 2020 during the pandemic, has once again resurfaced, in part because Butler studied science and history so deeply. The accuracy with which she read the shifts in America can, at times, seem eerily prophetic. One entry in “Parable of the Sower,” which is structured as a journal, dated on “February 1, 2025” begins, “We had a fire today.” It goes on to describe how the fear of fires plague Robledo, a fictional town that feels much like Altadena, a haven for the Black middle class for more than 50 years, where Butler lived in the late ’90s.

In 2000, Butler wrote a piece for Essence magazine titled, “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.” She wrote: “Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes.”

In one of the last interviews before she died in 2006, Butler spoke to Democracy Now!, an independent news organization, about how she’d been worried about how climate could devastate California . “I wrote the two ‘Parable’ books back in the ’90s,” she said, referring to “Parable of the Sower” and her 1998 follow-up, “Parable of the Talents.” These books, she explained, were about what happens when “we don’t trouble to correct some of the problems we are brewing for ourselves right now. Global warming is one of those problems. And I was aware of it back in the ’80s.” She continued: “A lot of people were seeing it as politics, as something very iffy, as something they could ignore because nothing was going to come of it tomorrow.

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Lynell George, a writer who lives in Los Angeles and the author of a book on Butler and her creative journey, has spent many years studying Butler’s archives at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. In 2022, we asked George to write about how Butler predicted the world we live in. As so many people are turning to her work during this time of tremendous loss, we wanted to share that story with our readers again.

In her piece, “The Visions of Octavia Butler,” George wrote: “In ‘Parable of the Sower,’ Earth is tipping toward climate disaster: A catastrophic drought has led to social upheaval and violent class wars. Butler, a fervent environmentalist, researched the novel by clipping articles, taking notes and monitoring rain and growth in her Southern California neighborhood. She couldn’t help but wonder, she later wrote, what ‘environmental and economic stupidities’ might lead to. She often called herself a pessimist, but threaded into the bleak landscape of her ‘Parable’ novels are strands of glimmering hope — ribbons of blue at the edges of the fictional fiery skies.”

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Parts of Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved inside the US Capitol because of freezing weather that is forecast for Washington on Monday.

It will be the first time since 1985 — when a severe cold snap hit Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration — that a swearing-in ceremony has been moved indoors.

The president-elect announced the revised plans in a Truth Social post on Friday, saying he had ordered the inauguration address, as well as prayers and speeches, to be delivered inside the Capitol Rotunda as Reagan had done four decades ago.

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“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump wrote.

“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th.”

The National Weather Service said an “enhanced winter storm threat” was in place for Sunday afternoon and evening, and predicted about 2-4 inches of snow would fall, with a “reasonable worst case” scenario of 4-8 inches.

“Bitterly cold wind chills” were expected Monday to Wednesday, the NWS said on Friday, as it forecast temperatures to be “well below freezing” during this period.

The agency is forecasting a high of about -5C at 11am local time on Monday, when the swearing-in ceremony is due to begin, with a wind-chill of -13C that it warned could result in hypothermia or frostbite without appropriate attire.

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Trump said the Capital One Arena — with a capacity of 20,000 — will be opened on Monday for a live viewing of the ceremony, and that he would visit the venue, located about 2km from the Capitol, following his swearing-in.

Other events, including a victory rally at the arena are scheduled for Sunday and inaugural balls set for Monday night, will continue as scheduled, the president-elect said.

Trump encouraged supporters who choose to come to “dress warmly!”

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