BOSTON – Employees at four Boston Hilton Hotels will return to work Friday after ratifying new contracts.
Who was on strike?
The four hotels on strike were Hilton Boston Logan Airport, Hilton Boston Park Plaza, DoubleTree Hilton Boston-Cambridge and Hampton Inn & Homewood Suites Boston Seaport.
The strikes came to a halt on Tuesday, October 29, after the union Unite Here Local 26 reached a provisional agreement. The contract was ratified on Thursday.
The Union said the new contract has “the same standard of wages and working conditions as established by Omni Hotels & Resorts,” and will increase wages for non-tipped employees by $10 over four years, improving hiring and termination conditions and health care benefits will be improved.
“The pay increase employees will receive will make a tangible difference in their daily lives. We appreciate that Hilton has taken our demands seriously and made this commitment to care for their employees,” said Unite Here Local 26 President Carlos . Aramayo said in a statement.
“We got everything we asked for. Everything is so expensive now. With this new contract I have more money for rent, for food and for my children,” Hilton Boston Logan Airport room attendant Ana Gomez said in a statement.
Employees such as chambermaids, counter clerks, banquet staff, dishwashers and cooks will return to work from 4 a.m. on Friday.
Hotels in Boston are on strike
Several hotels in Boston have been on strike since their contracts expired on August 31. The strikes lasted three straight days until no agreement was reached by the union’s October 4 deadline. About 600 employees of The Boston Park Plaza and Hilton Boston Logan Airport subsequently began a continuous strike October 6.
Omni Hotels & Resorts joined the strikes from October 15 and reached an agreement five days later.
The Union said more than 20 hotels in Boston are still without contracts.
“We are hopeful that the other hotel companies will follow the example of Omni and Hilton,” Aramayo said in a statement.
