Inside a Boston hotel on strike

BOSTON – On Labor Day, the Hilton Boston Park Plaza was bustling with guests spending the holiday in the birthplace of the American Revolution. They milled around the concierge desk seeking travel advice and ponied up to the bar for bowls of clam chowder and pints of Sam Adams.

Whenever the front door opened, a blast of noise from outside spilled into the graceful lobby.

“Make them pay!” shouted several dozen hotel workers on the second day of a three-day strike. “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Demonstrators banged drumsticks against orange Home Depot buckets, and a man played a güira. Passing cars honked in support.

At the Hilton property, about 400 union members with Unite Here Local 26 walked out on one of the country’s busiest weekends, in a city that AAA designated as one of the top Labor Day destinations in North America. Employees from four Boston hotels were on strike over the holiday weekend, joining an interstate effort from the national union that by Monday had grown to more than 25,000 workers in nine cities. Around 200 hotel workers walked off the job in Baltimore on Labor Day, according to Unite Here.

As the demonstrators picketed outside properties for a more equitable contract, hotels had to cut back at front desks, at bars and restaurants, in housekeeping and elsewhere as they tried to provide guests with a quality stay.

“Managers are doing my job,” said Lloyd Stan Hargrove, a 62-year-old maintenance employee who has been working at the Boston Park Plaza for 41 years.

“We are going to strike until our demands are met,” Hargrove said. “We are never going to surrender.” He wore a red T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, “One Job Should Be Enough.”

In Boston, employees started picketing on Sunday morning and had planned to continue until 11 p.m. Tuesday. While they are marching, contract workers and employees pulled from other departments are filling in.

On Monday at the Park Plaza, a ponytailed woman from the sales department was bartending at the Off the Common bar. In the adjoining restaurant, a “for-hire” temp looked tentatively at a touch-screen ordering system before he was tapped to help a table, stumbling on his way.

The union requested travelers do not eat, sleep or meet in any of the four Boston hotels striking this weekend, and it provided a map of alternate properties. Many travelers were caught off-guard. Ride-shares and taxis pulled up to the entrance on Park Plaza and discharged surprised passengers into a sea of redshirted employees hoisting posters that read “On Strike.” A block away, subway riders could hear the drum beats and shouted slogans as soon as they emerged from the Arlington T station.

Many guests said they were uncomfortable crossing the picket line, but had no other options.

“I felt bad because I support human rights,” said an attorney from New York City, who was spending the night in Boston before a hiking trip in New Hampshire, “but I also can’t find a new hotel.”

Though the employees were breaking character and not assisting guests, an air of hospitality hung over the proceedings. On Monday afternoon, Jerry Works, a 69-year-old housekeeper and chief shop steward, frequently halted the procession and cleared a pathway for entering and exiting guests. Smiling widely, he swept his arm in the direction of the door like a courteous host.

“It’s not like they are angry at the guests,” said Alex Lechner, who was visiting from Germany. “They let you through.”

Lechner said he tried to check in at 3 p.m. Sunday, the official time. After a 45-minute wait, the front desk told him the room was not ready and asked him to come back. A few hours later, he tried again.

“It took an hour to get to the front of the line, and then they told us there’s no check-in for the next two hours,” he said over a Belgian draft beer at the bar.

At 10 p.m., his family, which includes children 6 and 9, could finally access their room. At 7 a.m. Monday they were awakened by “train horns” being blown by the demonstrators.

Despite the disruptions, Lechner said he was sympathetic to their plight. Strikes are common in his home country, he said, and throughout Europe.

“In Germany, the trains and pilots and cabin crew will strike,” he said. “And France is even worse.”

A retired teacher visiting from London was less forgiving. He said he and his Welsh friend had to “fight our way” through the demonstration on Sunday, and he sensed a frisson of hostility. “We haven’t come to Boston to get all this kind of aggravation,” he said. “After the second day, it’s beginning to irritate.”

Still, staff members inside the hotel were doing their best to keep spirits up and guests happy. A front-desk attendant upgraded a customer from a “wicked small room” on the protest side of the building to a more spacious and serene room.

“We’re trying to keep you away from the noise,” she said.

At the front desk, a stack of printouts from the managing director explained the situation: “The hotel is currently negotiating a labor contract. … The picketing you see today is related to these negotiations and is not uncommon in connection with labor contract negotiations.” It also informed guests that while the hotel “did not anticipate any significant disruption,” housekeeping would be available only for departures.

The apologetic letter neglected to mention that the bar was serving a limited menu and not mixing specialty cocktails. Nor did it anticipate the piles of used towels that lined one hallway like snowdrifts.

During his 43 years as a housekeeper, Works said he’s had to shoulder more daily responsibilities without commensurate pay or staffing support. In addition to cleaning upward of 16 guest rooms, he must help maintain the upkeep of the lobby and public restrooms, plus deliver customers’ laundry. He said the hotel recently expanded the corps of housekeepers, but not for what he considers a just reason.

“They hired additional people to try to cover the strike,” he said.

Kevin Haynes, 47, has been a cook for seven years, bouncing between the hotel’s multiple kitchens. He prepares meals for banquet events, the cafeteria and the restaurant, where he and one other chef might churn out 200 dinners a night. He has to prep his own food, so he is often struggling to keep up with orders.

“The workload has increased, but the workers have decreased,” Haynes said. “And they’re trying to pile a two-person job on one person. That’s not fair.”

The union’s list of demands includes higher wages in line with the rising cost of living, fair staffing and workloads, improved benefits and a reversal of pandemic-era cuts. Works said Hilton management proffered a 50-cent raise, the same amount he received in 1982. The union has asked for a $10 raise that would be phased in over four years.

In a statement, Hilton said it “makes every effort to maintain a cooperative and productive relationship with” the union and remains “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements that are beneficial to both our valued Team Members and to our hotels.”

During a break in picketing, several employees shared their struggles to support their families. They said they lived day-to-day, week by week, never earning enough to sock away for the future. Many had to take second jobs. Haynes was a gig driver, but quit when he realized he was missing out on milestone moments with his three children. Works drove a school bus until a heart ailment forced him to drop his supplementary income and reduce his housekeeping hours. He said retiring in a home of his own is an impossible dream.

“You either pay for your rent and groceries or a house with no food or the medicine that I need to be on for the rest of my life,” said Works, the father of nine and grandfather of 50.

The Greater Boston Labor Council, which has held its Labor Day breakfast at the Park Plaza for decades, moved the event to Statler Park, across the street from the hotel.

The annual gathering of union leaders and Democratic legislators included Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Many attendees showed their solidarity by joining the picketing workers before breakfast.

“We are going to bring attention to the changes that are needed in the hotel industry, and frankly, so many other industries, where workers continue to be paid far too little as executive compensation goes up and up,” Darlene Lombos, the council’s president, said in a statement.

Inside the hotel, four women traveling with a tour bus group from Canada chatted among themselves while they waited for a front desk employee to return with additional coffee pods and a box of tissues. Kay Methot, a native of Ireland, said she empathized with the workers.

Her companion, Liette Laniel, interjected, saying the hotel should compensate them for the kerfuffle.

“They should do something for the clients,” Laniel said, “like a free breakfast or dinner.”

They were on their own, so they headed out for New England seafood at Saltie Girl. Minutes after they passed by the striking workers, a police car appeared across the street.

Because of a noise ordinance, the employees had to put down their bullhorns and drums around 8 p.m. They continued to march deep into the night.