OAKLAND, Calif.—The strike begun Oct. 4 by more than 2,500 Marriott workers in San Francisco and San
Jose crossed the Bay Oct. 5, when about 200 workers at the Oakland Marriott City Center walked out to demand higher wages. “As the cost of living skyrockets in Oakland and the hotel industry is booming, many hotel workers cannot afford to live in the city where they work,” UNITE HERE Local 2850 President Wei-Ling Huber told KQED-FM. With housing costs skyrocketing, “we have to work two and three jobs to sustain a livable life here in the Bay Area,” said Local 2 member Lisa Correa, a banquet server picketing outside the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. Meanwhile, about 160 workers at Marriott’s Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit went on strike before dawn on Oct. 7. “My health insurance is $50 a week that comes out of my check, so I can’t even afford to put both my kids on the health insurance,” Yolanda Murray, 43, a lead steward who’s been at the hotel for eight years, told the Detroit Free Press. “One job simply should be enough, but it’s not,” said Local 24 President Nia Winston. Read more
