In September, 10,000 workers went on strike across the United States over Labor Day weekend to demand better working conditions and pay.

Al Jazeera reported that workers went on strike in eight cities, including Boston, Honolulu, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle, after the Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotel chains did not reach an agreement with UNITE HERE union.

The union said the hotels had not reversed COVID-19 cost cutting measures, meaning workers are not ‘making enough to support their families’.

“Many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to, and painful workloads are breaking their bodies. We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers. Gwen Mills, International President of UNITE HERE

Hyatt told Al Jazeera that it has a history of cooperation with unions, and that it ‘look(s) forward to continuing to negotiate fair contracts’. Hilton and Marriot did not respond to the journalist’s request for comment.

At the end of September, AP News reported that 2,000 workers went on strike at Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, Hawaii’s largest resort and the largest Hilton in the world. The workers are calling for higher wages, more manageable workloads and a reversal of COVID-19 cuts. Hilton did not respond to the journalist’s request for comment.