芝加哥八家酒店员工罢工扩大，殃及MUSE Inspire、Pack Expo等多场会议活动

After the contracts of more than 7,000 Unite Here Local 1 hospitality employees expired August 31 and those employees authorized a strike September 21, at least eight Chicago hotels are using contingency plans to staff their properties as workers are now staying away from their jobs and picketing outside the hotels. 

On October 9, six hotels saw their front desk staffers, housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers and bell hops go on strike— Millennium Hotel Knickerbocker, Palmer House Hilton, Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, Waldorf Astoria Chicago, Westin Chicago River North, and Westin Michigan Avenue. The walkout affected many guests in town for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Then October 18, Unite Here employees from the Hilton Chicago and the Hyatt Regency Chicago joined the picket lines. 

During the week of Monday, October 19, the Hyatt Regency is hosting the MUSE Inspire healthcare technology conference as well as other events: ManuSec USA 2026 for the manufacturing cybersecurity field and DHI conNextions 2026 for the non-residential hardware industry.  

Meanwhile, Hilton Chicago is acting as a satellite registration and badge pickup desk this week for Pack Expo International Hub event, and the Illinois Credit Union League will arrive onsite later in the week. 

According to reporting from HotelDive.com (https://www.hoteldive.com/news/chicago-hotel-union-workers-strike/832612/), Daniel Dring, head of labor relations for the Americas at Hyatt, said October 19 that the company “looks forward to continuing to negotiate a fair contract” with employees of Hyatt Regency Chicago, and that contingency plans are in place to minimize the impact on hotel operations. 

Similarly, a Hilton spokesperson told Hotel Dive the company “remains committed to negotiating fair and reasonable agreements that benefit both our valued Team Members and our hotels,” and that there are contingency plans in place at the Hilton Chicago “to ensure operations continue to run as smoothly as possible.”

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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.