San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Employees say they are squeezed for profit, but hospitality firms point to low occupancy
Before the pandemic, Claudia Valencia worked at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square hotel as a housekeeper, cleaning rooms five days a week. She liked the work, which paid close to $30 an hour and gave her access to affordable medical care for herself and her family.
When she was laid off last year because of the pandemic she figured it might be for a few months. But a year and a half later, she hasn’t been able to return to her old job even close to full time, only picking up one shift since the hotel, the largest west of Las Vegas, checked in its first guests since last year in May.
On Thursday, hundreds of members of Valencia’s union, Unite Here Local 2, marched in downtown San Francisco and cities across the country to demand a return to pre-pandemic levels of work.
Pictures on social media showed marchers carrying signs that read “Full service now!” and “Hotel room should be cleaned every day.”
San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney posted pictures on Twitter of himself with the union workers, and calling out city hotels for cutting back on automatic housekeeping, which he said could lead to a loss of more than 180,000 jobs and over $4 billion in wages lost each year.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Hilton
Nicole Huang uses a megaphone during the march as demonstrators descend on the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco to demand a return to work.
did not directly address questions about what percentage of staff had been hired back or when the hotel plans to return to previous staffing levels.
“Staffing levels are informed by market demand, local business environments, as well as recommendations from government and health authorities,” the
hotel said, adding “We look forward to welcoming back our guests and team members.”
The city’s hotel occupancy has rebounded somewhat from its dismal levels this time last year, but is still only about half of the close to 90% of rooms that were filled in October 2019, according to data from S.F. Travel, the city’s visitors bureau.