Hotel union, Hilton agree on contract

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UNITE HERE Local 1 and Hilton Worldwide have reached a labor agreement in Chicago covering 1,600 workers at the Drake, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago Hilton and Hilton O’Hare, the union announced Monday.

The agreement, ratified Friday, preserves pension and health care benefits and includes a wage increase, improved job-stability terms and reduced workloads for housekeeping staff. A housekeeper in Chicago now making $14.60 an hour will make $16.40 an hour by the time the contract expires in August 2013, for example, said Annemarie Strassel, Local 1 spokeswoman.

The workers have been without a contract for 18 months, and during that time the union has held protests in front of select hotels, boycotts and short strikes at some sites. The labor issues caused one convention to cancels plans for an August convention here.

Local 1, which represents 8,000 hotel workers in the Chicago region, is still negotiating with Hyatt and Starwood hotels. All of the contracts expired the end of August 2009.

Claudia Virto, a housekeeping employee at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, said she is pleased by the contract terms. She said that the agreement to maintain existing housekeepers’ workloads will prevent long-time workers who were moved from laundry to housekeeping from losing their jobs. The agreement calls for workers to clean about the same number of rooms — 16 per day — as before.

“As a single mother of three, I am really glad we have a contract that maintains our benefits, including being able to see a doctor when our rapid work causes an injury,” said Virto, a Cicero resident whose children are ages 6, 8 and 10.

Strassel said the agreement “maintains strong middle-class standards for jobs, wages and benefits that will help the workers climb out of the recession.” That includes continuation of health benefits at $30 per month for family coverage and no cost for individual coverage.

A Hilton spokesman issued this statement: “We are pleased to have arrived at a point in our negotiations with Unite Here where an agreement could be reached which we feel is both good for our company and good for our team members.”