Roughly 900 Boston Hotel Workers Go On Strike

BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Roughly 900 hotel workers went on strike at four Boston hotels Sunday.

Room attendants, front desk clerks, doormen, servers, cleaners, and other staff walked off the job at the Hilton Park Plaza, Fairmont Copley Plaza, Hilton Logan Airport, and Hilton-Hampton Inn Boston Seaport.

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Unite Here Local 26 represents hospitality workers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The union's contract with the hotels expired at midnight.

According to union leadership, they have been negotiating since April on a new contract for higher wages because many workers are struggling to make ends meet.

"If you ask anybody standing here right now walking this picket line whether the economy is working for them, they’re going to tell you no," Unite Here Local 26 President Carlos Aramayo told WBZ NewsRadio outside the Hilton Park Plaza. "They’re going to tell you they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford the rent, they can’t afford to take their kids out to a nice dinner."

Aramayo said the union is also fighting for a better pension, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of pandemic-era cuts, but trying to hammer out a deal with the hotels has been a struggle.

"Companies, especially companies like Hilton, have just thrown sand in our faces and said no over and over and over again."

"It’s kind of awful," said worker Ian S. "We went to the table and didn’t get anything in response."

WBZ NewsRadio has reached out to Hilton Hotels for comment.

WBZ's Jay Willett (@JayWillettWBZ) reports.

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