More contracts ratified, Chicago hotel workers’ strike down to two hotels

After about a month of negotiations, Crowne Plaza and Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites Magnificent Mile ratified contracts on Friday, according to Unite Here Local 1 representative Elliott Mallen.

Just a day before Hyatt Hotels reached contract agreements with its workers as did Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza and the Warwick Allerton. Now just two hotels, Cambria Magnificent Mile and Kinzie Hotel, continue to have workers on strike demanding year round health insurance.

“After four weeks on strike, I’m proud to have a contract that guarantees healthcare in the wintertime,” Hyatt Regency Chicago employee Demetrius Jackson said in a statement released by Unite Here Local 1. “The workers of the hotels still on strike deserve the same.”

At the strike’s peak, 26 downtown hotels were affected by thousands of workers walking off the job as part of a negotiation for better contracts. In late September, more hotels ratified contracts leaving workers at 17 hotels on strike.

The housekeepers, doormen, restaurant workers are part of Unite Here Local 1, a union that represents thousands of hospitality workers across North American.

When union contracts expired at the end of August, workers went on strike Friday, September 7. It was on of the largest downtown hotel workers strikes the city had experienced. In previous contract negotiations, the union has worked to get better wages and sick days. This time workers demanded year-round health insurance, even for employees who were laid off during slow months in winter.