Striking Hilton workers get backing from nurses union, city council

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The workers at Hilton San Diego Bayfront are getting an extra boost of support as their strike to receive better pay and protections in their next contract nears the one-month mark.

The United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) is pulling its biennial upcoming convention from the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, where it was scheduled to take place next month, amid the strike by UNITE HERE Local 30 workers.

In a statement on the move Tuesday, UNAC/UHCP, who represents thousands of nurses and healthcare workers including those at Sharp and Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, said it did not make the the decision lightly, but did so to “stand in solidarity” with those on the picket lines.

Among the over 700 striking Hilton workers are bellhops, housekeepers, dishwashers, front desk agents, cooks and servers. They are calling for better pay and work conditions, including the reversal of cost-cutting measures that have saddled staff with unmanageable workloads.

“We’ve held our convention at the Bayfront numerous times over the years. We put a lot of work and preparation into this year’s celebration,” Charmaine Morales, a registered nurse and the UNAC/UHCP president, said in the statement. “But we’ve seen how hard these folks work every day and we appreciate what they do to care for hotel guests.”

“Our choice is clear, as caregivers and union workers ourselves. We will not be divided,” Morales continued. “One job should be enough to live on, even in San Diego.”

The health care workers union says they also delivered a “ letter of concern ” to Hilton San Diego Bayfront management a few days after the strike began over Labor Day weekend.

In the letter, UNAC/UHCP leadership offered an ultimatum to the hotel to reach a resolution with the striking workers, or else they would move the multi-day convention in October to another hotel — threats that they made good on this week.

The nurses’ union move to stand with the UNITE HERE Local 30 workers comes exactly a week after the San Diego City Council passed a resolution during its regularly-scheduled meeting on Sept. 17 to back the hotel workers in their push for better wages and working conditions.

The resolution, while ceremonial, was billed as a way to up the pressure towards reaching a new contract that is fair and reflects the workers’ demands in the UNITE HERE Local 30 strike.

“Right now we are not living, we are just surviving,” Rosa Carrillo, a housekeeper at Hilton who is a member of UNITE Here Local 30, said during the city council meeting through a Spanish language translator.

“We need there to be justice in our work so that we can only have one job or only need one job, because when there are two jobs, what happens is that our children are not getting taken care of,” she continued. “We need the support of all of you … You can help us put a little more pressure so that this contract can be resolved.”

FOX 5/KUSI reached out to both Hilton and UNITE HERE Local 30 for comment, but did not receive a response prior to publication.

“Now Hilton is finally realizing what we actually do because we tend to be invisible. If we do our job well, you don’t notice we’re there,” Bridgette Browning, UNITE HERE Local 30 president, said during the city council meeting. “But trust me when we’re not there, they definitely notice.”

“We’re trying to lift up a whole industry because what we win here for these workers,” Browning added, “the rest of the hotels will copy and we could change people’s lives from living in poverty to actually being able to afford groceries and to not have to work a second job.”

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