Thousands of hotel workers continue nationwide strike on Labor Day, demanding higher pay

Thousands of workers at 25 hotels across the country remained on strike for a second day Monday, demanding higher pay and the reversal of pandemic-era cuts, with members in more cities expected to join the strike.

On Sunday, around 10,000 hotel workers walked off the job, kicking off the strike during the busy Labor Day weekend at 25 hotels in eight cities, including San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Honolulu. The workers are represented by the UNITE HERE union and work for the Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotel chains.

In a statement, UNITE HERE said the workers are striking "after months of unresolved negotiations."

In Connecticut, Hyatt Regency Greenwich employees carried signs that read "Respect our work" and "One job should be enough" as they advocated for themselves outside the hotel Monday. Some played drums, while others rang cowbells.

"Check out! Don't check in!" some of the workers chanted, encouraging guests to leave the hotel.

Francisco Tobias, who said he'd been working at the hotel for about 30 years, said he was protesting for better pay, better health care, a pension and respect.

"After the pandemic, they just don't care," he said about his employer. "They just want to make the money, make the money, save the money — but nothing, they don't give us anything."

Tobias said that he and his colleagues used to have a cafeteria where they were served hot food but that now they get containers of cold food.

"I feel very sad, very sad," Tobias said. "At a great company where I work, now they don't care."

His son, Kevin, is also an employee at the hotel and was at the strike Monday.

"Growing up, I saw that, you know, working in this hotel in particular, you can make a living," he said. "But I feel like in recent years, especially since the pandemic, that's not the case anymore. The dollar is harder to get, and it gets you less. So we're out here, trying to improve our lives."

UNITE HERE International President Gwen Mills said the hotel industry is earning record profits while its employees "aren't making enough to support their families.

"Many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to, and painful workloads are breaking their bodies," Mills said. "We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers."

A spokesperson for Hyatt said in a statement Monday that the company was "disappointed" that UNITE HERE members were striking while it remained "willing to negotiate."

"We look forward to continuing to negotiate fair contracts and recognize the contributions of Hyatt employees," the spokesperson said.

Mihaela, who declined to give her last name, went to the Hyatt hotel for a family wedding and said the wait for the room was long and made her late for the ceremony. She told NBC News that she supports the hotel workers on strike.

"I'm bothered that they had to do that, because apparently we live now in a society where I think we really need to do this in order to be heard," she said. "There's so much money at the very high levels and so little for us, and we make the high level thrive, and we also need to thrive ourselves."

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said Monday in a statement on X that she'll be standing in solidarity with UNITE HERE members "striking for fair wages and the contract they deserve."

"Because in Massachusetts, Labor Day isn’t a day we take off — it’s a day we take action," she wrote.

Roughly half of those on strike, about 5,000, are from Honolulu, The Associated Press reported.

UNITE HERE says strikes have been authorized and could begin soon in other cities, including Baltimore; New Haven, Connecticut; Oakland, California; and Providence, Rhode Island.

The union said similar strikes led to contracts last year for Los Angeles hotel workers and Detroit casino workers.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com