A hotel strike that resulted in an employee lock-out has now spread from California to Hawaii, and threatens to gain
ground in other locations, too.
On September 29th, 1,200 union workers from Unite Here, the hotel workers’ union, declared a two-week strike at four
San Franciso hotels in a dispute over the cost of healthcare premiums. The four hotels targeted are members of a
nationwide bargaining coalition called the Multi-Employer Group, and on October 1st, the San Francisco members if the
Group locked out all union workers in 14 local Group hotels. When the strike ended, the hotels refused to
allow union workers to come back to work, sending them to unemployment line.
Instead, some of them got on a plane and landed in Waikiki to picket two more Multi-Employer Group resorts, and
local workers are honoring the picket. Industry analysts predict strike actions will follow in DC and Los Angeles
before spreading to other major markets in the US if the contract dispute is not settled.
Unite Here and the Multi-Employer Group continue 30 days of negotiations today in Washington, D.C..