‘Missing out on my own life’: Workers at 2 busy Boston hotels vow to strike until new contract

BOSTON — Hundreds of more workers at two busy Boston hotels walked off the job Monday and formed picket lines in an expanded push to secure a new contract.

Nearly 700 workers from the Omni Parker House and the Omni Boston Seaport hotels join 600 workers on strike at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport and the Hilton Boston Park Plaza, bringing the city’s total number of striking hotel workers to almost 1,300, Carlos Aramayo, President of UNITE HERE Local 26, announced.

Striking workers include room attendants, housepersons, front desk agents, telephone systems operators, doorpersons, bellhops, cooks, dishwashers, banquet staff, and barbacks.

Workers at both Omni properties had walked off the job for three days in September, but this time they will not return to work until they reach an agreement with Omni Hotels & Resorts, according to Aramayo.

Because a citywide strike has already been authorized by union members at Boston properties whose previous contracts expired on Aug. 31, workers from other UNITE HERE Local 26 properties may also go on strike at any time and for any duration, potentially continuing to increase the number of hotels affected, according to Aramayo.

Aramayo said strikers will staff picket lines outside the hotel entrances 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“If you ask any of the hotel workers, they will tell you that the economy is no longer working for them,” Aramayo said in a statement. “And they’ll also tell you that it’s because of the hotel companies. The workers have a firsthand view of how busy the properties are and how much they’re charging guests for the rooms. The money that the companies are making has not been going into the workers’ pockets. We need a reset. That’s why the workers made this decision to go on an open-ended strike—to make the companies pay them the wages they deserve.”

The hotel workers’ union has been bargaining for a new contract standard with significant wage increases and sustainable workloads since April.

“I’m on strike because I work two jobs in order to provide for my family,” said Yuri Yep, a Restaurant Server at the Omni Parker House for 10 years. “I’m always rushing, and I don’t even have time to see my kids. I’m missing out on my own life. It’s ridiculous that I’m living this way when the hotel companies make record profits. They can afford what we’re asking for, and we’ll be out on strike until we win for all of our families.”

Omni Boston Seaport Hotel has the distinction of being the largest hotel in Boston, with over 1,000 rooms and 100,000 square feet of event space. Its smaller sister property, the Omni Parker House, is the longest continuously operating hotel in the country.

UNITE HERE Local 26 urged guests not to eat, meet, or sleep at any hotel that is on strike.

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