Articles from UNITE HERE

Hospitality workers union UNITE HERE Local 23 warns the Hilton Americas-Houston is at risk of a labor dispute if a settlement on a new contract is not reached. Workers’ union contract at the Hilton Americas expired on June 30 and dozens of workers picketed the downtown Houston hotel July 17, calling for fair wages.

UNITE HERE, North America’s hospitality workers union, has issued a new alert for institutional investors, urging public pension fund fiduciaries to pause new commitments to private equity funds investing in professional sports franchises.

Union leaders and UNITE HERE members stood in solidarity with federal workers at Tuesday’s Emergency Committee on Federal Workforce & Funding Reductions to propose a solution to the impending budget crisis caused by extremists in DC. With 145,000 federal workers and more than $100 billion in federal contracts in 2023, Virginia stands to lose more than most through the misguided and cruel attacks of President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team. Their unified message was, “Don’t leave tax dollars on the table at Virginia’s casinos.”

UNITE HERE Local 25 issued the following statement on Governor Youngkin’s veto of the clause in the state budget that would have given Henrico residents a choice about whether to move forward with the controversial Churchill Downs Roseshire Gaming Parlor:

Today, UNITE HERE Local 49 launched a new website about environmental violations by seafood processing company Pacific Seafood Group: pacificseafooddirtysecret.org.

After Park Hotels & Resorts stopped making payments on the loan backing the Hilton USA Trust 2016-SFP commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, a receiver was appointed to manage the collateral, the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc55 hotels. Michelle Russo of HotelAVE is the court-appointed receiver, and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., is the servicer and special servicer for the loan.

While thousands of hotel workers are on strike at Marriott locations in San Francisco, UNITE HERE’s “Resort Fee Ripoff” website has published a new guide for customers who’ve been forced to pay the company’s unpopular destination fee and now want to demand a refund.

Hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 2 today called on the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to cancel its 2025 event, saying a months-long hotel strike means the event cannot be held successfully in San Francisco. The union added that pharmaceutical and other health care executives and investors who would normally attend the invitation-only conference are responsible for inflated health care costs that have contributed to the labor dispute. The conference is scheduled for January 13-16, 2025.

Holders of Hilton USA Trust 2016-SFP commercial mortgage pass-through certificates should be aware of a looming transaction involving the loan’s special servicer, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. The loan backing the certificates has been in special servicing since June 2023, when Park Hotels & Resorts announced that it would stop making interest payments and would not pay off the loan at maturity. A receiver has been appointed to manage the collateral, the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc55 hotels, and the receiver has engaged Eastdil Secured to market the properties for sale.

Hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 2 issued a holiday travel alert as a months-long strike continued to roil the San Francisco hotel industry. Thousands of Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt workers are on strike at hotels accounting for approx. 27.5% of San Francisco’s hotel rooms, and they say they are prepared to continue striking through the holidays and into the new year. The union warns that hotels where workers are on strike have already cancelled Christmas events – like the beloved Santa Afternoon Tea at the Palace Hotel – and may not notify travelers in advance of the ongoing labor dispute.

While hotel workers are on strike at Marriott locations in San Francisco, UNITE HERE’s “Resort Fee Ripoff” website has revealed how the company’s "destination fees” are just like unpopular resort fees at other hotels—and in some cases worse.

While thousands of hotel workers entered the 55th day of strikes at Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt locations in San Francisco, UNITE HERE’s “Resort Fee Ripoff” website is alerting travel agents about the possible impact of resort fees on their guests and their commissions.

UNITE HERE, the union of hotel workers throughout the United States and Canada, issues the following advisory to holders of Hilton USA Trust 2016-SFP asset-backed securities:

UNITE HERE, the hotel workers’ union, has updated their website monitoring Park Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: PK) to include content from TripAdvisor’s AI-Driven Review Summaries. The analysis feature, which the TripAdvisor Machine Learning Team crafted using prompt engineering, generative AI, and Large Language Models, launched for select hotels in January of 2024.

Two months after hotel strikes in major U.S. travel destinations began, the hotel workers union UNITE HERE has launched a new website for guests to share their experiences at striking hotels. HotelStrikeReviews.org allows visitors to leave reviews about stays or interactions with Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels where workers are on strike. The website also cross-posts strike-related reviews from Tripadvisor, Yelp, Google, and other leading travel review sites.

While thousands of hotel workers strike across the country for a hospitality industry that respects them and their guests, UNITE HERE’s “Resort Fee Ripoff” website features research showing that resort fees are a top concern for guests at Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott hotels.

A recent analysis found that hotels representing over 30% of Park Hotels and Resorts’ (NYSE: PK) hotel operating profit are impacted by ongoing U.S. hotel strikes. Park-owned hotels where workers with the UNITE HERE union are on strike generated nearly a third of its 2024 YTD hotel earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), the hotel industry’s standard measure of profitability.

Members of UNITE HERE Local 8, the hospitality workers union of the Pacific Northwest, demonstrated outside of the Seattle Hotel Association’s Fall Membership meeting, drawing attention to resort fees tacked onto hotel room rates that can feel deceptive and unfair.

The hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE today called on hotels to notify guests if they are booked at a hotel where workers are on strike. Guests arriving at Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott hotels have reported that they were not notified of raucous picket lines or service disruptions. In one case, guests in swimsuits held a protest in the hotel lobby to demand refunds. Over 4,000 hotel workers are currently on strike in Boston, Honolulu, and San Francisco. Workers in all three cities say they will strike until they win new contracts, and some have been on strike for weeks.

UNITE HERE sent letters to dozens of owners of Hilton franchises in university towns, urging them to evaluate whether Hilton is the brand that provides the most value for their properties going forward, in light of Hilton’s recent acquisition of the Graduate Hotels brand.

UNITE HERE, the hotel workers union, has launched a website collecting customer reviews of hotels owned by Park Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: PK), one of the largest lodging REITs in the world. The launch of the website comes amidst ongoing strikes across the country, including over 1,250 hotel workers on strike in Boston, New Haven, and San Diego as of September 12. Over Labor Day weekend, over 10,000 hotel workers went on strike for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts.

Following widespread Labor Day strikes involving over 10,000 hotel workers, the hotel workers union UNITE HERE has launched HotelDisloyalty.org, a new website exposing how Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt have devalued their rewards programs since 2020. For longtime guests, this means years in saved points might no longer be enough for a dream vacation, or means services they depend on have been cut. The union is running digital ads to survey customers on how rewards programs’ devaluation has affected them, and to educate potential program participants about the issue.

Following widespread Labor Day strikes that saw over 10,000 UNITE HERE members walk off their jobs, the hotel workers union has launched a new website highlighting concerns over the high cost of resort fees. While workers took to the picket lines across nine cities calling for higher wages, fair staffing, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts, the union also distributed leaflets to guests about the “Resort Fee Ripoff” at their hotel.

Hotel workers union UNITE HERE yesterday launched a new suite of digital ads that target tourists and travelers nationwide. The ads feature hotel workers saying they are “sick of saying sorry” to guests about staffing and service cuts. They are part of an effort to educate hotel customers about why thousands of hotel workers are preparing for possible strikes in eleven cities across the U.S.

Hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE today published a guide of travel tips to help hotel guests plan for possible strikes across the United States. Thousands of hotel workers in nine cities have now authorized strikes at Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Omni hotels, but hotels rarely notify guests of a strike, and travelers sometimes learn of a strike only upon arriving at their hotel and being met by a boisterous picket line. The union launched the travel guide ahead of Labor Day weekend, when millions of Americans are planning travel.

UNITE HERE Local 25, the hospitality workers union, has called for a boycott of the Grand Hyatt Washington. Workers will picket the hotel daily beginning Monday, August 5th accompanied by a giant inflatable rat.

Today at UNITE HERE’s 2024 Constitutional Convention, Gwen Mills was elected as the international union's new president, making her the first woman to hold this position in the organization’s 130-year history. Gwen’s election as President marks a significant milestone for both UNITE HERE—which has a membership of nearly 275,000 hospitality workers across the U.S. and Canada, a majority of whom are women—and the broader labor movement.

According to a new UNITE HERE report, contracted food service workers working in Meta cafeterias nationwide struggle to afford basics like rent and food. In the report, “Food Service Workers at Meta Need A Raise,” employees of the company’s food service contractors, Flagship and Yarzin Sella, say the aftermath of skyrocketing inflation has left them living paycheck to paycheck, late on rent, and skipping meals.

UNITE HERE launched a billboard today warning customers of American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company (NYSE:AEL), that it may be purchased by the Bermuda-based affiliate of Brookfield (NYSE:BN). Brookfield has defaulted on over $1 billion in commercial real estate this year alone. The billboard is located less than a mile from the Iowa Insurance Division, the state agency that would need to approve any sale of Des Moines-based American Equity.

U.S. Senators and Members of Congress accused Brookfield Renewable Partners of “misleading climate-related claims” in a letter calling for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to strengthen Wall Street firms’ disclosure requirements. The letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler cites UNITE HERE’s recent report, Brookfield Climate Reality Check, which documents multiple ways in which Brookfield’s investment activity and disclosure practices belie its sustainability claims.

UNITE HERE released a research report today unveiling billions of dollars of Brookfield Corporation (NYSE:BN) related-party investments made by American National Insurance Company in the year after Brookfield bought the Galveston, TX-based insurance company, most of which are listed on American National’s sworn Annual statement as “unaffiliated,” and over $1.2 billion of which are Brookfield-related real estate securities. So far this year, Brookfield ventures have defaulted on over $1 billion of commercial real estate loans, with over $5 billion more of office and real estate loans having been identified by analysts or lenders as distressed.

UNITE HERE launched a new website, www.BrookfieldRealEstateWoes.org, on August 24, 2023, as a resource for regulators, members of the public, and other stakeholders who may be concerned about the dozens of headlines affiliates of Brookfield (NYSE: BN) have garnered this year about defaults, debt downgrades, and other commercial real estate distress.

UNITE HERE wrote to over 1,100 agents of American National Insurance Group on July 24, 2023, warning them that their company’s takeover by Bermuda-domiciled Brookfield Reinsurance (NYSE: BNRE) has brought about a shift in investment strategy for the assets backing the insurance products they sell, and urging them to contact their state insurance regulators for information.

Accor hotel workers from two U.S. hotels traveled to Paris this week to describe disrespect, intimidation, and other problems with working conditions they have experienced at their hotels.

In a public comment submitted to the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) on July 10, 2023, UNITE HERE called for a modernization of the current guidance for pension plan fiduciaries on pension risk transfer (PRT), in light of the rapid growth of private equity-backed insurers in the life and annuity insurance industry. UNITE HERE wrote that “the need for robust guidance (is) exemplified by the investment behavior of American National Insurance Company in the fourteen months since its acquisition by Canadian-based private equity giant Brookfield Corporation.”

A report by UNITE HERE finds that Brookfield, one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers and a leader in ESG investing, has made billions of dollars of new investments in fossil fuel infrastructure through its affiliates since 2020 and that its well-publicized “net zero” pledge excludes most of the emissions associated with these investments. The report is available at BrookfieldClimateRealityCheck.org.

The hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE has launched AccorHotelAlert.org, a website to inform the public that workers have reported disrespect, intimidation, and other problems with working conditions at two Accor-operated hotels in the United States. Accor is a French hotel conglomerate.

Hotel workers at the Sofitel, overwhelmingly immigrants, women and people color, are organizing to join UNITE HERE and the International Union of Operating Engineers. The hotel, operated by Accor and owned by Brookfield Asset Management, has held mandatory anti-union meetings and threatened to change the schedule of an employee who is leading the union organizing effort.

The hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE has launched a website to inform prospective buyers of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn that the hotel is facing a labor dispute, human capital management issues, and a regional labor shortage.

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In a letter released on Thursday May 4, UNITE HERE cautioned administrators of defined benefit pension plans that federal regulators have identified potential risks in private equity-backed insurers, including those offering pension risk transfer (PRT) transactions.

As the Tommie and Thompson Hotels go up for auction this week, their sister property the Dream Hotel is the subject of a letter from the hospitality workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 11 asking the City Attorney of Los Angeles to investigate whether the hotel has fully complied with the Hotel Worker Protection law, which the City of Los Angeles passed in June of this year.

Four women who work at Los Serranos Golf Club, which is operated by JC Resorts, have filed two separate lawsuits alleging that the luxury golf club failed to protect them from an alleged serial sexual harasser who was the club’s Executive Chef for more than two decades. The four women are represented by Lauren Teukolsky of Teukolsky Law and Zoe Tucker of UNITE HERE Local 11.

Yesterday airport lounge workers employed by Sodexo at Austin International Airport leafleted customers after they demanded a fair process to decide whether to organize a union last week, while Sodexo workers at other airports already represented by UNITE HERE took action to encourage Sodexo to raise wages and improve conditions as workers struggle amid historic inflation and travel turmoil at airports. Lounge workers have reported flight delays and cancellations have led to packed lounges.

Food service workers picketed outside the Sodexo cafeteria located in the Federal Reserve building today, saying their wages are not remotely keeping up with inflation. Sodexo cafeteria workers who feed and serve the Federal Reserve have an expired contract and are fighting for a new one with raises that are enough to afford the rising costs of housing, food, and transportation.

Today, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and hospitality union UNITE HERE announced an alliance to work together to strengthen protection of pension benefits in response to private equity’s growing encroachment into the retirement services industry.

Today, UNITE HERE Local 54, the largest union of casino workers in Atlantic City, released estimates of potential financial impacts of a strike of its members.

UNITE HERE and Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: CZR) have reached an agreement whereby Caesars has committed to implement a majority vote standard for uncontested director elections at its Board of Directors meeting in July 2022. The agreement came after UNITE HERE provided notice to Caesars of its intention to independently solicit proxies for a majority vote shareholder proposal at the Company’s upcoming annual meeting, asking shareholders to vote on the issue for a second time. Seventy percent of shareholders previously voted in favor of the majority vote standard at the Company’s annual meeting in 2019 (when the Company was known as Eldorado Resorts, Inc., prior to its acquisition of Caesars Entertainment Corporation).

Hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE has issued a travel alert for Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) guests, advising that most Hilton hotels’ default is no longer to clean hotel rooms daily. As the COVID-19 Omicron variant raises new safety concerns about holiday travel, housekeepers say that Hilton should not reduce cleaning services. Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta has said it is his goal to “retrain customers” and change expectations for housekeeping service, but housekeepers want travelers to know that Hilton says they can opt for daily housekeeping at no extra charge.

Today, UNITE HERE published a new website, www.ApolloLifePointWatch.org, to provide Yuma, AZ residents with information about LifePoint Health, a for-profit hospital chain owned by private equity giant Apollo Global Management.

UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents over 32,000 hospitality workers across Southern California and Arizona, sent a letter to the American Hotel and Lodging Association and dozens of members of Congress in firm opposition to the “Save Hotel Jobs Act” today.

Today, UNITE HERE launched a new website for beneficiaries of pension plans taken over by Athene: ApolloAtheneWatch.org.

Mr. C Beverly Hills housekeeping workers yesterday filed a complaint with the Small Business Administration asking whether the hotel’s $3.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans meant for small businesses actually went to workers as intended by Congress.

A coalition of government watchdogs and labor groups appealed to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in an open letter to release data about forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. The government has already forgiven $194 billion in PPP loans, but has not revealed which loans were forgiven – and whether those recipients kept workers on the payroll.

On Wednesday, dozens of laid-off hospitality workers filed a complaint and protested outside the Four Points by Sheraton LAX. Workers demand the U.S Small Business Administration (“SBA”) conduct a full investigation of the $4.4 million in Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans approved for the hotel as owner Rui Gao permanently closed the hotel on February 5, only one week after being approved for its second loan.