LinkedIn X Facebook Email Gift Decision Intelligence Photo Credit: Image of members of a hotel union in Chicago on strike in front of the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk Hotel on October 9, 2026. UNITE HERE Local 1
Owners, not brands, carry most of the payroll burden. The union's answer is blunt: There is "enough money in this system." But owners see things differently.
Hundreds of union workers walked out of six downtown Chicago hotels Friday, two days before the Chicago Marathon, and their union warned that 40 more hotels could follow.
The strike, called by Unite Here Local 1, is far narrower than the one members authorized. More than 7,000 workers at 46 hotels voted last month to authorize a walkout. Contracts expired at 44 of them on August 31, and the other two also lack one. Most workers are still on the job.
Local 1 President Karen Kent declined to say what would trigger a wider walkout. "We're going to have to do a lot more, whether it's strikes or other actions," she told Skift. Workers at any of the remaining hotels "could be on strike at any moment," she said.
The strike list names three Marriott-branded hotels, two Hilton-branded hotels, and one Millennium property:
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Tags: chicago , hilton , hotel management , labor , marriott , strikes , unions , wages