"Workers' wages did not keep pace with that," she said.

Many of the local union's members have to hold several jobs to get by, according to Vernice Scott, a banquet server at the Oakland Marriott.

Scott says she decided to walk off the job "because I had to let the largest hotel company in the world know that they have plenty of money."

"They have more to give," Scott said. "I believe they see us as numbers and not as human beings with needs."

In San Francisco, Unite Here Local 2 announced Thursday morning that the employees walked off the job about two weeks after they overwhelmingly voted to authorize the action.

Union officials have said they want higher wages for the company's housekeepers, kitchen workers, bartenders and bellmen who work for one of the largest hotel employers in the city.

"It's unacceptable that hotel workers struggle to survive while Marriott rakes in billions," Unite Here Local 2 President Anand Singh said in a statement Thursday.

"Our strike is sure to disrupt the lucrative hospitality industry — but it needs disrupting," Singh said.

Lisa Correa, a banquet server picketing outside the Marriott Marquis, said she and other workers can barely get by.

"They are squeezing us dry," Correa said. "We have to work two and three jobs to sustain a livable life here in the Bay Area."