Marriott hotel workers in SF strike amid busy convention season

On Thursday, nearly 2,500 hotel workers employed by Marriott walked off their jobs in San Francisco call for higher wages and greater job security. On Thursday, nearly 2,500 hotel workers employed by Marriott walked off their jobs in San Francisco call for higher wages and greater job security. Photo: Sarah Ravani / The Chronicle Photo: Sarah Ravani / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Marriott hotel workers in SF strike amid busy convention season 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Nearly 2,500 workers walked off their jobs Thursday morning from seven Marriott hotels in downtown San Francisco to call for higher wages, workplace safety and job security.

Picket lines were formed outside the Courtyard Marriott Downtown, the Marriott Marquis, the Marriott Union Square, the Palace Hotel, the St. Regis, the W. and the Westin St. Francis, according to UNITE HERE Local 2, a union that represents 89 percent of the workers.

The dispute came after a contentious contract negotiation between 2,300 hotel workers and Marriott, the city’s biggest hotel employer with seven San Francisco hotels. The contract negotiations will impact 8,000 hotel workers in total at more than 50 San Francisco hotels, according to UNITE HERE Local 2.

In September, 98.6 percent of the workers voted in favor of authorizing a strike.

Several dozen people marched outside The Westin St. Francis near Union Square chanting, “No contract? No peace” and holding signs that read, “One job should be enough.”

Flor Salazar has worked at the hotel for over 40 years as a telephone operator. She joined the picket line because she wanted fair wages, and better health care and pension plans.

“I feel betrayed,” Salazar said. “It’s hard for our members out here. Some of our members have been ill. Some had cancer. Members are out here fighting for our rights.”

Salazar said she gets paid barely above minimum wage and in her decades of working at Marriott, she’s only received at most a 35 cent pay increase per year.

“We all have to move out of the city because we cannot afford San Francisco,” she said.

A single mother to three children, Salazar said that before she put her kids through college, she had to work two jobs, including her Marriott job, just to be able to survive.

The strike comes during the busy fall convention season, which will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to San Francisco. Moscone Center is currently hosting a health care conference, IDWeek, until Oct. 7. The Anesthesiology 2018 conference occurs from Oct. 13 to Oct. 17, followed by Oracle's OpenWorld, one of the year's largest conferences, from Oct. 22 to 25.

Marriott said in a statement that it was “disappointed” by the union’s decision to strike now. “During the strike our hotels are open, and we stand ready to provide excellent service to our guests,” the company said. “While we respect our associates’ rights to participate in this work stoppage, we also will welcome any associate who chooses to continue to work.”

Marriott's portfolio includes over 6,700 hotels in 130 countries, spanning 30 brands including the Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, W Hotels and Westin. Marriott said it became the world’s largest hotel company after its 2016 acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. The company operates some hotels directly but also franchises its brands to local owners and operators.

Workers argued that their wages aren’t high enough to live in the Bay Area. Additionally, they said, Marriott hasn’t done enough to protect workers from harassment from guests.

Last month, Marriott said it was giving housekeepers and other workers an alert device that summons help if the workers feel harassed or need help. It is unclear if those devices were given to staff before the strike.

Workers on Thursday were also protesting the hotel’s use of technology — touch screens and gadgets like Amazon’s Echo, often called Alexa — that could have a hand in eliminating their jobs.

San Francisco isn’t the only city where Marriott Hotel workers have walked off the job.

Staff are also striking at hotels in Boston and San Jose. Strikes were authorized in Detroit, Honolulu, Maui, Oakland, San Diego and Seattle to allow staff to join the picket lines at any time.

This strike is expected to be the largest one in San Francisco since 2004 when hotel workers city-wide joined the picket lines to protest their health care plans, said Rachel Gumpert, a spokeswoman for UNITE HERE Local 2.

It could go on for days.

“We’re going to stay on the picket line until Marriott workers no longer need to work two or even three full-time jobs just to make ends meet,” Anand Singh, president of UNITE HERE Local 2, said in a statement.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani