Democrats move Labor Day breakfast outdoors ‘in solidarity’ with hotel workers’ strike

Massachusetts Democrats on Monday moved their annual Labor Day breakfast from the usual indoor setting of the Hilton Park Plaza hotel to outdoors in a show of solidarity with hundreds of striking hotel workers in Boston.

“Hotel executives are making unprecedented millions while workers here in Boston are struggling with fundamental issues,” Darlene Lombos, president of the Greater Boston Labor Council, said in a statement Sunday. “This year, we’re pivoting and doing things differently. We’re going to draw attention to the changes that are needed in the hotel industry, and frankly, many other industries, where workers continue to be paid far too little while executive pay keeps going up and up.”

The council represents more than 100,000 workers and hosts the breakfast annually. Held for decades at the Park Plaza Hotel, organizers said in a statement that the event seeks to highlight “the ongoing struggles of essential workers” and encourage “elected officials to break bread with union workers who power Greater Boston’s economy.”

About 900 hotel workers joined a planned three-day strike Sunday morning, including those at the Hilton Park Plaza hotel. UNITE HERE Local 26 reported that workers at Hilton Logan Airport, Hilton-Hampton Inn Boston Seaport and Fairmont Copley Plaza also went on strike Sunday to protest staff and service cuts and failed attempts to win higher wages in contract talks. The workers included room attendants, front desk clerks, doormen, cooks, dishwashers and banquet servers.

“I am on strike because I am literally tired of working multiple departments and an unpredictable weekly schedule just to be able to work 40 hours a week,” Michael Correa, a bartender at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport Hotel for 17 years, said in a statement. “The strike is a huge sacrifice, but it is something I have to do for myself and my two daughters.”

Organizers said Friday they had contingency plans in place in case the strike went ahead, but declined to provide details or explain why they chose the same location when hotel workers have been in unsuccessful contract talks for months.

At about 9:15 a.m. Sunday, the organizer confirmed to the State House News Service that the breakfast would be held outdoors for the first time.

“We will not cross the picket lines, but we will still celebrate Labor Day together,” the Greater Boston Labor Council said. Breakfast attendees, who were scheduled to take their seats along Columbus Avenue around 9 a.m., were invited to join striking workers at a rally in front of the Park Plaza Hotel at 7 a.m. Monday.

The council said Friday that U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley, Gov. Maura Healey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu were scheduled to attend the breakfast.

Wu joined hotel workers who marched in the picket line on Monday morning.

“These workers also deserve a decent wage, the ability to support their own families, and we are here to support them,” Wu told reporters on Monday.

About 4,500 UNITE HERE Local 26 union workers previously agreed to authorize strikes at 35 hotels after months of difficult contract negotiations with the hotel companies. Last Wednesday, State House News Service reporters spoke with several workers at SEIU’s 32BJ office in downtown Boston, who were signing up for strike pay and picketing duty and making picket signs.

UNITE HERE Local 26 says its members have won “record-breaking contracts” in 2023 after strikes at Los Angeles hotels and Detroit casinos. There were no final strike plans Sunday at the remaining 31 Boston hotels where workers have authorized strikes, an official said.

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With reporting by Barbara Moran, Lisa Creamer and Paul Connearney of WBUR, and reporting by Michael P. Norton of the State House News Service