A nearly four-week-long strike by 700 workers at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront shows no signs of ending, even as the 1,190-room hotel experiences business cancellations in the wake of the walkout.
No new bargaining sessions have been scheduled, and the hotel workers union, Unite Here Local 30, says its members remain more determined than ever to stay off the job until a satisfactory contract settlement is reached, union President Brigette Browning said Thursday.
So frustrated is the union with the bargaining stalemate that it says it’s planning to schedule in the next couple of weeks a strike authorization vote affecting yet another Hilton hotel — The Hotel Del Coronado, where the two-year contract for its 800 union workers is set to expire at the end of the month. Such a vote would give union leadership the authority to call a strike if it feels that the hotel has not made an offer that’s in the best interests of the workers.
“We think we’ve cost the hotel a very significant amount of business revenue so it’s surprising they haven’t reached out yet to us,” said Browning. “We know that at least two weddings moved because the wedding parties told us. And they represented a lot of people.
“Right now the mood for us is we’re getting ready to possibly go on strike at the Hotel Del. We’ve asked for a bargaining session but they haven’t responded.”
A representative for Hilton did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Unite Here is attracting growing solidarity with its strike, which has prompted at least two key groups to cancel their planned meetings at the bayfront hotel.
The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals moved their upcoming conference, scheduled to start next week, to a Los Angeles hotel — The Westin Bonaventure — and the San Diego Foundation, which was to hold its annual fund-raising conference earlier this month at the hotel, pivoted and turned it into a virtual meeting. The nurses group was expecting 1,000 attendees, and the Foundation, 800.
“We weighed all of our options, and did not take this decision lightly, but ultimately, it was pretty easy because we’re always going to stand with workers,” United Nurses Associations president Charmaine Morales said on Thursday. “These workers live in a county that is so expensive. And with many of our members living there, we put a lot into the community there, so we want everyone to be able to afford to live there. One job should be enough.”
The nursing organization said it doesn’t expect to suffer financial consequences as a result of the last-minute cancellation because it had a clause in its contract that shields it from liability in case of an unforeseen event outside its control.
The San Diego Foundation issued an emailed statement about its cancellation, saying that in keeping with its values for “just, equitable, and resilient communities,” it pulled its planned meeting and said it hopes that “an agreement can be reached soon to lessen the impact on UNITE HERE workers.”
Up until recently, Hilton San Diego Bayfront workers were the only unionized hotel employees in the country on strike, after planned three-day walkouts ended earlier this month. But in the past few days, more workers have begun walking off the job. In Hawaii, union workers at Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort — the largest Hilton in the world — went on strike this week. Joining them were about 1,500 workers at three San Francisco hotels where they are pushing for higher wages, as in San Diego.
Unite Here’s opening offer to Hilton, which leadership acknowledges it won’t get, sought a $5 hourly pay hike each year over three years for non-tipped employees, which include housekeepers, stewards, cooks and front desk agents. The average housekeeper at the Hilton Bayfront currently earns $24 an hour. During the last bargaining session with Hilton, which was about a couple of weeks ago, it offered an hourly raise of $5.50 over four years, which the union said it promptly rejected.