Over 120 housekeepers, front desk agents, cooks, and other employees at the Omni Hotel went on strike early Thursday morning, amid an ongoing contract fight over better pay, healthcare, and pensions.
Those downtown hotel workers walked out of their jobs at 5 a.m.
The Omni workers are represented by UNITE HERE Local 217; the strike was announced via a late Wednesday email press release sent out by Ian Dunn, a spokesperson for Yale’s UNITE HERE clerical and technical workers union, Local 34. That press release cites “painful workloads and wages that aren’t enough to afford the skyrocketing cost of living” as some of the reasons for the strike.
At around 7 a.m. Thursday, roughly three dozen striking workers rallied on the sidewalk in front of the 155 Temple St. hotel, which is formally called the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale.
They wore red shirts bearing white and black text reading “Hotel Workers STRIKE” and “Local 217 UNITE HERE!” on the back. They carried signs stating: “ON STRIKE RESPECT OUR WORK” and “ON STRIKE MAKE THEM PAY.”
“What do we want? Contracts!” the striking hotel workers chanted.
“When do we want it? Now!”
“No contract!” They continued. “No peace!”
The workers will be on strike for four days straight, and will be protesting in shifts, according to Omni front desk agent, Local 217 member, and hotel union “loyalty ambassador” Bobby May.
Brenda McPherson, who has worked at the Omni for over 27 years as a banquet servers, joined her colleagues on the picket line Thursday. Her job entails serving meals as well as setting up and breaking down.
She said she’s seen a lot of downsizing over the years. She also noted she’s of retirement age, and so she’s fighting not only for herself, but also for future Omni workers and union members.
“It’s like they don’t appreciate what we do,” she said about management. “I love my job, but I want them to appreciate what I do.”
Only guests are allowed in the hotel as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday.
“It’s not fair to discuss the specifics of the contract because we are in the middle of negotiations,” Omni General Manager David Han told the Independent. The “union is exercising their right and we will continue to find a resolution.”
Thursday’s workplace walkout comes a little more than a month after the unionized Omni workers voted unanimously to authorize a strike amid unresolved contract negotiations, which in turn was followed by a hundreds-strong rally by local labor leaders and allies outside the hotel in mid-August.
The Omni workers’ last contract expired in late March. Represented workers include housekeepers, front desk agents, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, bellmen, and others.
The strike also comes as UNITE HERE-represented hotel workers across the country — in San Diego, Boston, Baltimore, and elsewhere — have gone on strike in recent weeks. And it comes as New Haven native Gwen Mills was elected president of the international union earlier this year.
By around 8 a.m., the crowd of strikers had grown to around 40. Passing cars beeped in support, as protesters blew their own loud red horns from the sidewalk.