The Mercury News: San Jose Marriott workers reach agreement to end strike

November 10, 2018

Striking Marriott hotel workers ratified an agreement to end their 37-day labor dispute, union leaders confirmed Saturday.

No details about the agreement with Unite Here Local 19 in San Jose were immediately available because Marriott workers in other cities are still on strike, said Sarah McDermott, a spokesperson for Local 19.

Oakland workers ratified their contract earlier this month, but hotel workers in San Francisco remain on strike.

“We’re very happy with the contract,” McDermott said Saturday. “It’s a great contact, and the workers feel really good about it.”

Workers at the Bay Area hotels went on strike Oct. 4 to demand higher pay, more job security and smaller workloads. McDermott said Local 19 had reached a tentative agreement with Marriott on Thursday, and workers voted to ratify it Friday afternoon.

Unite Here union represents 270,000 workers in the United States and Canada in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation and airport industries. In the Bay Area, about 12,000 Unite Here members work as housekeepers, dishwashers, servers and bartenders, cooks and bellmen at various hotels, including Marriott.

“We congratulate our brothers and sisters in San Jose on a life-changing contract that makes one job enough for hotel workers,” Anand Singh, president of Unite Here Local 2 in San Francisco, said in a statement. “We’ve always known that Marriott has the means to settle this strike, and we’re prepared to fight for as long it takes.”

Marriott confirmed Saturday that the contract with San Jose workers has been ratified.

“We look forward to welcoming our associates back at work,” a company spokesman said in a statement.