PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Hotel and hospitality workers across Philadelphia are demanding new contracts at eight different hotels after working for months without them.
More than 60 people representing and supporting UNITE HERE Local 274 picketed outside the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown hotel at 17th and Race streets in Center City on Wednesday. That’s where Shafeek Anderson works as a banquet steward, doing so without a contract for about a year.
“It’s been extremely stressful. We’re stuck in this kind of limbo,” he said. “We’re doing more, but we’re stuck in the same place that we were a year ago. It’s just simply unfair. We need to be able to keep progressing forward.”
Contracts have expired at seven other Philadelphia hotels as well, including the Sheraton University City, the Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, Sonesta Hotel in Center City, the Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing, the Hilton Garden Inn in Center City, the Warwick Hotel in Rittenhouse Square and the Hampton Inn near the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where Jéan Guenther works as a laundry attendant. He said employees are overworked.
“They’re underpaying us and they’re understaffing us. So not only are we not only getting paid what we’re supposed to get paid, we’re also doing two, three jobs,” said Guenther.
And that’s just at their main employer. AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council President Danny Bauder says low wages and high cost of living have forced union members to pick up work on the side:
“Many of them have to work more than one job to survive, and that’s foolish. One job should be enough,” Bauder said.
Next year will be a big one for hospitality — between America’s semiquincentennial, the FIFA World Cup and MLB All-Star Game, all in Philadelphia. Guenther said securing a fair deal ahead of 2026 is crucial.
“They will have money in 2026 to cover these contracts,” he said. “A lot of business coming into the city, a lot of hospitality work that needs to be done. Come on and pay us, please.”
While the union is not walking out, a UNITE HERE spokesperson says a strike is on the table down the line if a deal isn’t reached quickly enough.