Union workers at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown and the Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City-Convention Center are on strike, hospitality labor union Unite Here confirmed to Hotel Dive Monday.
Workers across both Philadelphia hotels, including hotel room attendants, cooks and other employees, launched their strikes on Sunday, calling for higher wages, pension increases and improvements to healthcare coverage, a local ABC News station reported Sunday.
Unite Here’s local Philadelphia chapter, which represents 4,000 private sector hotel and food service workers in the area, including those at the Sheraton and Hampton Inn properties, could not be reached Monday for additional information on the strikes.
The walkouts began after workers’ contracts with the hotels expired recently, according to a tracker created by the chapter, Unite Here Local 247. Marriott International, which operates the Sheraton hotel, and Hilton, which operates the Hampton Inn, did not respond to Hotel Dive’s request for comment by time of publication.
According to the Unite Here tracker, other Philadelphia hotels where labor disputes are possible at any time include Hilton Garden Inn Center City, The Warwick Hotel Rittenhouse Square, Sonesta Hotel Philadelphia, Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing and Sheraton Hotel Philadelphia University City.
Elsewhere, in Texas, union hotel workers are on strike at Houston’s largest hotel, Hilton Americas-Houston. Hilton previously told Hotel Dive the company is “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable agreement” with workers there, who are calling for wages of at least $23 per hour.
The Houston hotel workers first launched a nine-day strike on Labor Day, Sept. 1, which has since extended for more than five weeks.
