Philly hotel workers push back potential strike as FIFA World Cup is set to begin
Unite Here Local 274 has been in contract negotiations for a year for room attendants, cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and banquet staff.
Unionized hotel workers in Philadelphia had planned to strike if they hadn’t agreed on a new contract by Friday, but they’ve decided to continue working for now, citing progress made in negotiations.
Their union, Unite Here Local 274 had announced a strike deadline of June 12 last month. Hours away from the deadline on Thursday evening, the union announced in a statement that the deadline had been extended but did not provide a new date. The statement noted, “a strike may now be called at any time.”
“Substantial progress is being made in some hotels,” union president Rosslyn Wuchinich said in a statement Thursday. “We have set a citywide standard, and we expect our hotel employers to meet it or face disruption during the World Cup.”
The union said last month that some 600 workers across five hotels where contracts had still not been reached could walk off the job.
They are: Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown, Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing, the Warwick Hotel Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia, and Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City.
Workers at two of the five hotels had voted to authorize a strike, Wuchinich said in May. Strike authorization votes still have not been held at all five hotels, union spokesperson Dermot Delude-Dix confirmed Thursday.
The union last spring began negotiating new contracts at several Philadelphia hotels.
New contracts have since been adopted at: Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City — Convention Center, Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square, and the Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel.
At these hotels, contracts include raises to $30 an hour by 2028 for non-tipped employees, and an increase in employers’ contributions to their pensions. The contract also includes a provision capping the number of rooms a worker can be tasked with cleaning at 15 per day, down from 16 previously.
