Union contracts covering some 6,000 workers at 30 Chicago hotels expired Aug. 31, and the unionized workers at at least 26 of those hotels had been on strike for four days as of Sept. 11. Thousands of housekeepers, doormen, cooks and bartenders walked off the job. It is reportedly the broadest coordinated hotel worker strike the city has ever seen. A key demand of the union is for year-round health insurance for hotel employees who get laid off during the slow winter season. According to a union statement, “Striking hotel workers deserve year-round health insurance, sick days to see a doctor, workloads that keep them healthy, and wages that keep up with the cost of raising a family.”
