Three-day strike

Unite Here Local 1 pickets Hilton over lack of contract, poor working conditions

10/20/2010 10:00 PM

By GREG SKINNER
Editor

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Hilton employee Paul Renz directs a guest from a Yellow Cab to the guiding care of a Hilton escort past circling strikers at the Chicago Hilton on Michigan on Monday, the final day of a three-day strike.
Photos by GREG SKINNER/Staff



A strike team leader encourages Unite Here Local 1 members to sing and shout during the final hours of a three-day strike at the Chicago Hilton that ended Monday. Workers protested a lack of contract and increased workloads by a company they say took federal bailout funds.

Housekeeper Maria Flores walked the picket lines around the Chicago Hilton at 720 S. Michigan Ave. for three days before returning to clean rooms Tuesday in the hotel she says is trying to squeeze more work out of fewer people.

Flores joined scores of Unite Here Local 1 housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks and bell staff in a loud three-day strike to protest increased workloads and the lack of a contract for taxpaying employees while Hilton hotels in Chicago and across the nation benefited from a $180 million federal bailout.

The Chicago Hilton strike piggybacked on strikes at Hilton hotels in San Francisco and Honolulu that started last week. Together, nearly 3,000 hotel workers picketed work conditions and contract issues.

In August, Hilton workers across the city voted to authorize a strike after a year without a contract. Across the city, 8,000 hotel workers’ contracts expired in August 2009, said Unite Here Local 1 spokesperson Annemarie Strassel. Nearly all workers voted in favor of the strike, she said.

Flores, a Hilton housekeeper for seven years, is on the negotiation team that last saw the bargaining table in September. She said her main issue is the attempt by Hilton to change contract language and increase her work load from cleaning 15 rooms each day to cleaning 20 in the same time. Unite Here Local 1 refers work load increase as “the dirty rooms program.”

Hilton got a bailout and was supposed to protect jobs, she said.

“Despite having benefited from millions in taxpayer dollars, Hilton’s proposals threaten to lower the standard for cleanliness and guest services at one of the city’s premiere convention hotel properties,” Unite Here Local 1 President Henry Tamarin said.

Flores said that as the hotel and convention economy recently began its rebound, Hilton laid off 30 housekeepers and pushed their workloads onto other workers.

“Given the physical nature of the work, such a speed-up could result in more injuries for housekeepers,” Strassel said.

About 15 workers were too scared to strike, because they were told they would lose benefits if they did so, Flores said, before adding she had no fear.

Members of at least two other unions could be seen Monday working the picket lines with Unite Here members.

“Tuesday, it’s back to work like nothing happened,” Flores said. “No one can bother me.”

Contact: gskinner@chicagojournal.com


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