Picket lines at the entrances to hotels have been an increasingly common sight in recent years, confronting meeting attendees in states with a strong organized labor tradition. States like California. But in Texas? In what’s said to be the first-ever hotel strike in the modern history of the Lone Star State, workers at the 1,207-room Hilton Americas-Houston have been carrying picket signs demanding higher wages and better working conditions since Labor Day. And unionized food and beverage workers at George R. Brown Convention Center, inspired by the labor action only a skywalk away, are on the verge of joining them by taking their own vote to strike after their contract expires Oct. 1.
Both properties are managed by Houston First Corporation (HFC), a local government corporation that serves as the city’s destination marketing organization and manages several city-owned facilities. HFC also owns Hilton Americas-Houston, where managers and nonstriking staff are reportedly attempting to keep operations running with service disruptions.
Events have been postponed to avoid crossing the Hilton picket line, including a “state of the city” address by Houston Mayor John Whitmire, who said on social media he was acting “in support of ongoing labor negotiations.”
Hotel Worker Gains Elsewhere
The approximately 400 striking hotel cooks, servers and housekeepers are members of Unite Here Local 23, the same union that led successful walkouts in the last two years in major U.S. hospitality markets. In Southern California, for example, workers got major wage increases, improved pension contributions and workload guarantees in contracts with 34 hotels. Significant gains were also won for hotel workers in Honolulu, Boston, Baltimore, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
In Houston, the union is demanding a $23 starting wage. HFC has so far offered a $17.50 base. The minimum wage in Texas is $7.25, but only because that is the federal standard; the state does not have its own minimum.
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“I work three jobs to be able to afford groceries, utilities and the necessities for my family,” said Marcella Zaleta, a cook at Hilton Americas, in a Unite Here Local 23 press release. “I’m a mother of three who works three jobs to provide for my kids.”
In addition to workers at the Hilton Americas and the George R. Brown Convention Center, Unite Here Local 23 represents Houston hospitality workers at the Marriott Marquis Houston, and George Bush International Airport (IAH), where union contracts also expire soon.
