Hotel workers want better pay ahead of Philly’s big tourism year

Ahead of an expected influx of tourists next year, unionized hotel workers in Philadelphia are pushing for better pay and working conditions.

Roughly 1,000 room attendants, cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and banquet staff represented by Unite Here Local 274 in Philadelphia could go on strike if they don’t get raises, more robust staffing, and pension improvements.

They work across eight hotels in the city: Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown, Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square, the Warwick Hotel Rittenhouse Square, Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City, Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City — Convention Center, Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel, and Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing.

“One of the biggest issues is that workers in our industry just are not making enough to live on — workers in our city in general are not making enough to live on and be able to not go into debt, to be able to pay their bills,” said Rosslyn Wuchinich, president of the union local.

The union’s opening proposal included a $12 raise over three years for nontipped workers. That would bring housekeepers, who make up a majority of the bargaining group, to $34 an hour.

“We’re looking for very significant improvements in wages as well as improvements in retirement pension so that people can stop working when they’re 65 instead of continuing to work into their 70s, because they are being pushed into poverty as senior citizens.”

In large part, the union is bargaining not with the well-known hotel brands directly, but with hospitality management companies that function as the employers. Representatives of those companies did not respond to a request for comment on the contract negotiations.

At a demonstration last month, joined by union leaders and local elected officials, some members held signs that read “One job should be enough,” marching in a circle, as vehicles drove by honking in support outside the Sheraton on 17th Street in Center City.

Shafeek Anderson, 26, has been working there for seven years. He’s a banquet steward making about $22 an hour, but he said workers often complete the tasks of multiple different jobs. He believes the hotel needs more staff.

He’s hoping for a new contract “that doesn’t make us work two, three, four jobs and break our bones and put us in a position where we’re walking home and our feet feel like they’re about to explode every day,” he said.

In 2026, Philadelphia will mark the country’s 250th birthday, host FIFA World Cup games as well as the baseball All-Star Game, and NCAA men’s basketball games. Throughout the year, events could bring in an additional over $1.3 billion for the region.

“These hotels are going to be completely full to capacity,” said Wuchinich. “Massive, massive profits are gonna be made in 2026, and these guys have the money, and they owe it to their employees, and they owe it to our city to pay people, pay Philadelphians what they are demanding.”

Laundry worker Corean Holloway, 74, has been employed at The Warwick Hotel Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia for 39 years.

Costs of living “really went up, so we need more money, more money on the pension,” Holloway said at the picket line.

The union is also looking to expand dependent healthcare coverage as some workers have in the past relied on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), according to a union spokesperson. The Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” includes changes to CHIP, which combined with Medicaid cuts overall could lead to 11.8 million people losing healthcare.

A strike is on the table if negotiations stall.

“We are gonna keep fighting, and we will keep escalating up to and including striking if necessary in order to win what we deserve,” said Wuchinich, but she did not share when a strike authorization vote would be held.

Unite Here has pulled that lever multiple times locally in recent years.

Unionized concessions workers at Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, and the Wells Fargo Center went on strike in 2024 as they sought new contracts with their employer, Aramark.

And in 2023, restaurant workers at Philadelphia International Airport voted to authorize a strike amid contract negotiations, but the union reached an agreement with the employer, OTG, before calling a strike.

Contracts for these hotels expired last year and some of them were extended until recently, Wuchinich said. Negotiations with most of the hotels began in full in the spring.

Housekeepers currently make about $22 an hour, the union said. A single adult working full time in Philadelphia needs to make $23.26 an hour to pay for their basic needs, according to a living wage calculator developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That rises to $43.77 for a single adult with a child.

Some members need a second job in addition to their hotel work, Wuchinich said. And with the persistent problem of understaffing, she noted, even those who work only in their hotel position are often doing the jobs of two or more people.

“One of the ways these employers and these ownership groups … save money is by overworking our members,” Wuchinich said.

Some hotels in the city have been unionized as far back as the 1930s, Wuchinich said, but since then, hotels’ ownership structure has changed — and not to the benefit of workers.

“We have seen massive consolidation of wealth in our country, and that includes what’s going on in our industry,” she said. “These hotels are owned by private equity corporations, by real estate investment trusts, and by billionaire and millionaire wealth that is being pulled out of our city and not invested back into the people of our city and the way that it should be.”

The union represents workers at some 17 hotels in Philadelphia and estimates that roughly 25% of hotels overall in the city are unionized, Wuchinich said.

“In 1980, 100% of [the] hotel industry in the city was unionized,” she said, “but as new hotels have been developed, we have not done enough as a city to ensure that we’re creating good jobs as we’re investing in economic development in the city.”