How Big a Problem Are the Growing Worker Strikes for Marriott?
Photo Credit: Marriott employees across the U.S. are currently on strike, demanding better wages and better security and safety measures. Unite Here / Ana Laura Martínez and América Martínez
Skift Take
It's Marriott under fire now, but keep an eye on the broader hospitality and travel services industry in the U.S.
Labor union strikes against hospitality companies are not uncommon.
But the more than 7,700 striking Marriott employees represented by Unite Here, working in states that range from Hawaii and California to Michigan and Massachusetts, are demonstrating a growing problem — not only for Marriott, the world's largest hotel company — but for the general hospitality industry in the U.S.
That problem? The growing desire among workers throughout the historically low-wage hotel and service industries for better pay and increased security measures, and corporations having to face the consequences of not meeting those needs.
The union Unite Here represents approximately 20,000 Marriott workers, and nearly 40 percent of them are currently on strike. The strikes began in late September, after Unite Here contracts with various Marriott hotels across the U.S. began to expire in July and August of this year. The number of work stoppages at Marriott properties is growing, and beginning t
