Workers Strike at Hawaii’s Largest Hotel to Demand Better Wages, Conditions

Approximately 2,000 workers at Hawaii’s largest hotel, the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, went on strike early Tuesday.
The union workers at the Oahu resort began their strike at 5 a.m. local time, demanding higher wages, manageable workloads, and the restoration of services cut during the COVID-19 pandemic, including daily room cleaning.
While tourists continued to enjoy Waikiki Beach, hotel amenities, and nearby attractions, union workers marched with signs declaring, “One Job Should Be Enough,” highlighting Hawaii’s notoriously high cost of living that forces many residents to work multiple jobs.
This strike is part of a broader labor movement sweeping through the hospitality industry. Over 4,000 hotel workers are striking across Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott properties in Honolulu, San Diego, and San Francisco. These walkouts, organized by UNITE HERE, are in pursuit of new contracts, with the union hinting at additional strikes to come.
Newsweek reached out to UNITE HERE via email for comment.
Aileen Bautista, a single mother and Hilton housekeeper who works three jobs to support her family, expressed her readiness to go on strike.
“I am on strike again, and this time I am ready to stay on strike for as long as it takes to win,” she said in a statement, per the Associated Press.
Another worker, Estella Fontanilla, spoke during the march about the challenges of housekeeping, emphasizing the need for daily cleaning services. She explained that rooms that go uncleaned for days are much harder to clean and urged guests to request daily housekeeping.
It remains unclear how the strike will affect hotel operations, but past strikes have led to disruptions, including piled-up towels and trash, closed bars, and reduced pool hours. The union has also warned that hotels where workers are striking may suspend services while trying to operate with limited staffing, and picket lines will run outside hotels for up to 24 hours a day.
“During earlier strikes, guests experienced disruptions including unavailable daily housekeeping, towels and linens piled up in hallways, piles of trash visible outside, closed bars and restaurants, and reduced pool hours,” the union said in a statement.
Labor tensions are on the rise in Hawaii. Over 600 nurses at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu are locked out after a one-day strike for safer working conditions. Ten protesters were arrested Monday for blocking buses of temporary nurses from entering the hospital.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green and Attorney General Anne Lopez have called for federal mediation to resolve the hospital dispute.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.