Unite Here Local 1授权芝加哥46家市中心酒店工会员工随时罢工

Three weeks after labor contracts with union employees at 46 downtown Chicago hotels expired on August 31, members of Unite Here Local 1 voted on September 21 to authorize a strike at any time that union leaders deem negotiations with hotels hopelessly stalled.

The hotels, including various Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott properties, employ more than 7,000 union members who are front-desk agents, housekeepers, cooks, servers and dishwashers. Unite Here Local 1 said that if all those workers go on strike at once, it would be the largest hotel strike ever in Chicago. 

However, hotel strikes are often staggered, with employees from selected properties staging walkouts lasting one to three days, followed by union employees from a different set of hotels.

Nonetheless, a strike would cause significant complications for Chicago’s meetings and events industry, given that October and November are the busiest months of the year for conferences, conventions and trade shows.

"We are deeply concerned about the negative impact a work stoppage will have on employees, visitors, hotels, and the city as a whole," stated the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association. 

Continuing Talks and Contingency Plans

“We are hopeful hotel operators and union representatives can reach a fair and mutually acceptable resolution that recognizes the important contributions of hotel employees while acknowledging the significant financial and operational pressures facing Chicago hotels," added Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of IHLA. 

"In the meantime, the impacted hotels have robust contingency plans in place and remain open for business and ready to welcome guests with open arms," he said.

The last major strike at Chicago hotels was in 2018, involving 26 properties and lasting for four weeks.

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About the author

Rob Carey serves as content manager, news and features for Meetings Today, where he leads coverage of the latest trends, issues, data and insights related to corporate meetings and incentives as well as association conventions and exhibitions.

Carey has been covering the business-events industry since 1992, when he was hired as an intern at Successful Meetings magazine in New York while still a student at Columbia University. During his 15 years at SM’s parent company Nielsen, Carey moved steadily through the ranks to become editorial director for Successful Meetings, Meeting News and the Meeting World conference and exhibition. SM and MN won several FOLIO: Eddie Awards for editorial coverage during his tenure.  

Carey then spent 11 years as principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight, covering not just the MICE market for various industry publications but also writing about business disciplines such as hotel management, golf-facility management, small-business operations, middle-market leadership and others. And for several years he wrote the annual trends white paper for the International Association of Conference Centers.  

In 2018, Carey became a senior content producer for MeetingsNet, an Informa media brand, and a panel moderator for Informa’s Pharma Forum annual event. 

Come September 2025, he moved to Meetings Today.  

A native of New York,  Carey now resides in the Phoenix/Scottsdale metro area with his wife Kelley and their dog Ziggy.