Even as AT&T employees wrap up strikes over union contract disagreements in Mississippi this month, union officials say next year threatens new strikes in the hotel and services industry, if companies refuse to dump employee-punishing COVID-era practices.
“Workers all across the country have seen changes since COVID where employers are trying to profit by employing fewer people or assigning responsibility that used to be shared by multiple people to just one, and consumers have noticed these changes,” said UNITE HERE Communications Organizer Ted Waechter.
"Hotel staff are the ones getting punished for customers’ inconvenience, not the companies."
UNITE HERE, which represents 300,000 employees in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, and airport industries, among others, announced strikes in Honolulu, California, and some east coast hotels when workers could not reach an agreement with hotel owners over staff shortages and inadequate pay. Strikes ended in some east coast cities this week, but the strike continues in other spots and will likely include the southeast next year, when union contracts are up for renegotiation in New Orleans, Texas, and hotels along the Gulf Coast.
Workers do not generally engage in strikes while a contract is in effect, but they become a last resort when a new contract reaches an impasse. The gridlock in this case involves hotel owners refusing to staff hotels up to pre-COVID levels while pocketing savings in labor. There is a strong downside to deliberately imposing staff shortages, however.
“Hotel staff are the ones getting punished for customers’ inconvenience, not the companies,” Waechter told BGX. “Guests get angry, sometimes even violent, with our members when they’re dissatisfied with the guest experience.”
Dissatisfaction comes easy with inadequate staff. Lights remain blown, safety doors unlocked, bed sheets neglected and rooms harder to clean—if they are adequately cleaned at all. This was not such an issue when rooms were empty during the pandemic, but the global hotel industry is “witnessing a remarkable resurgence,” in COVID’s aftermath, say sources. Now there are more patrons and dirt, but fewer cleaners.
Customers are also discovering fewer fresh towels, unwashed beds and trash accumulating in baskets, as hotels permanently jettison daily housekeeping to reduce staffing costs. The COVID-era tactic, while saving big money, puts stress on remaining staff. Rooms that were once a quick clean after daily tidying now require more effort after a five-day customer stay. Meanwhile, hotel management still demands staff complete the job in the same amount of time to accommodate new guest check-ins.
Consumers can bury Yelp with complaints of dirty towels, but other hotels are using the same tactic.
“Nowadays, you go to a multinational hotel brand because increasingly all the brands are owned by the same people,” said Waechter. “You’ve got 33 brands, like the Westins and the St. Regis and the W Hotels and Marriotts, but they’re actually all Marriott brands.”
In an industry with few suppliers, bad service gets passed around like a head cold. Did the breakfast at New Orleans Marriott on Canal Street taste like cardboard? Head across Canal Street to the Sheraton New Orleans. But, if Sheraton valets fail to log your vehicle’s tag and stick your car with a $90 parking boot, you’ll be lodging your complaint back with Marriott International, who also owns the Sheraton. And, no, the management will not refund your $90. (They’ve outsourced parking services to a third-party and washed their hands of your car boot altogether.)
Marriott media contact Cameron Klaus did not immediately respond to emails.
Customers may have noticed the same understaffing problem in other service industries including FedEx or various car repair shops. While some staffing issues arise from fewer applicants in a competitive economy, CEOs are also raking in bonuses when they push employees to be more productive for the same or less pay.
“All companies are operating very lean,” ClearView Economics economist Ken Mayland told CNBC. “For many businesses, they’re back up to the 2007 to 2008 levels of business activities, but what we find is they’re doing it with significantly lower levels of employees.”
Economists say if companies can push fewer staff to cover holes for less money, why wouldn’t they? The tactic mirrors the efficient deterioration of the airline industry, which today qualifies as an oligopoly due to rampant airline mergers and buyouts. Like the contracting US hotel industry, four major airlines now hold more than 68% of the domestic U.S. market share.
“What we’re trying to do with our campaign is to stop hotels from going the way of the airline industry,” said Waechter.
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This article misspelled St. Regis as "regents." We apologize for the error.
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