Hilton becomes first hotel in Stamford to unionize

City and state officials in support of employees at Hilton Stamford Hotel & Executive Meeting Center unionizing enter for a rally at the property on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017 in Stamford, Connecticut. Employees and management finally agreed on a contract on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. less City and state officials in support of employees at Hilton Stamford Hotel & Executive Meeting Center unionizing enter for a rally at the property on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017 in Stamford, Connecticut. Employees ... more Photo: Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Hilton becomes first hotel in Stamford to unionize 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

STAMFORD — Workers at the Stamford Hilton decided to unionize over a year ago, but after a long and contentious negotiation with hotel administrators, both sides just recently agreed to a new contract.

The new contract, which will increase wages, reduce work for certain workers and charge employees less for health insurance, was unanimously ratified by workers at the 484-room hotel by a vote of 96 to zero on Friday.

Connie Holt, secretary treasurer for Local 217 of Unite Here, said some employees will see their paychecks increase in two weeks or so when the new contract comes into play, and those employees will get bumps for the next three years, until they reach the union pay established in the contract.

For example, the starting pay for a housekeeper is about $10.50 an hour. By the time the union agreement expires in three years, a housekeeper will earn $16. The salary for restaurant servers and banquet servers will increase from $6.38 to $7.95, plus gratuities. Employees above the union pay scales will receive a 5 percent raise each of the three years.

In addition, the cost of health care will be cut in half for some workers.

In terms of workload, housekeepers have had their work decreased by almost 50 percent in some cases. Prior to organizing, room attendants cleaned 30 rooms or more, according to Unite Here. Now they clean 16 rooms per shift and earn extra pay if they clean extra rooms. They will not be expected to clean more than 12 check-out rooms.

That’s a change that was actually implemented before the contract was approved, back when Ted McCallum took over as general manager about 10 months ago, he said.

“That was an immediate change that I made when I arrived here,” he said, calling the previous workload “totally unacceptable.”

Bargaining between employees and management was difficult at times, and employees even called for a boycott of the hotel last year as they were unhappy with the terms offered by the hotel. Now that the contract has been ratified, the boycott has been lifted.

“When the union is calling for boycotts and contacting clients and asking them to boycott the hotel, it certainly has an effect on us,” McCallum said. “We’re happy that this has concluded. It’s been a long process ... it was contentious at times, but also I understand all the needs of the parties involved.”

While the negotiations may have been combative, McCallum said management and staff get along “extremely well.”

“We all share a significant amount of relief that this process has ended,” he said.

Holt called the negotiation a “long hard battle.”

“The biggest challenge was a hotel that did not spend a great deal of money on its workers trying to get to a contract that has a much larger investment in its workforce,” she said. “That’s hard to get an employer to invest that kind of money in their workers.”

She said the wage increase will “transform” the lives of some of the employees.

“The idea is to take the lower wage range and make them more sustainable living wages,” she said, of the new contract.

Donald Jean Marie is one of the main organizers for the union. He helped the Hyatt Regency hotel in Greenwich, where he works as a bellman, unionize about five years ago.

“When you think about all of the hard work that we put in — picketing outside when it’s snowing and when it’s raining — and putting our job at risk, to finally have the contract is very rewarding,” he said.

He said when he got the news, he was driving on the highway to Stamford and had to pull over, because he was screaming in joy.

“I didn’t want to get into an accident,” he said.

Late last year, Sheraton Stamford workers voted to unionize and join Local 217. Negotiations between employees and management are expected to begin soon. If ratified, it would become the second hotel in the city to unionize.

Unite Here represents 3,000 hotel and food-service workers in the state.

The Stamford Hilton is owned and operated by Atrium Hospitality, which manages 82 hotels in 29 states.