Daniel Lurie Helps Bring End to Marriott Hotel Strike

With three weeks to go before he assumes office, Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie is already at work for San Francisco. His influence helped bring part of one of the longest strikes in the city’s history to an optimistic end. Sunday marks three months from the strike’s beginnings on Sept. 22. If Hilton accepts a contract with similar terms, the hotelier will join Marriott and Hyatt in ending the strike altogether.

Daniel Lurie has pull among his wealthy peers and is using it… to help people?

While Lurie’s wealthy status moved the untouchable corporate echelons of Marriott and Hyatt to action, the union representing San Francisco’s striking hotel workers consistently defended their seat at the table. Unite Here Local 2 unites employees from Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Grand Hyatt San Francisco, the Palace Hotel (Marriott), the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, the San Francisco Marriott Union Square, and the Westin St. Francis (Marriott). 

Money talks, as was the case when San Francisco’s mayor-elect reportedly “made some calls.” The working class can drum and shout as they please, but it’s safe to say money only listens to money. Who knows how long the strike would have lasted before someone as powerful as Lurie intervened? Could networking, a motive which typically damns more people than it saves, work in his new constituents’ behalf? 

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli makes this argument as well. In his recent article, “Daniel Lurie off to good start…,” Garofoli details his recent meeting with Lurie. (SF Chronicle) “When I mentioned to him that he possessed a superpower that many other mayors didn’t — the ability to pick up the phone and connect with wealthy hotel owners, rich dude to rich dude — his eyes widened knowingly and he said he was ‘optimistic’ the strike would be settled soon. Yeah, right, I thought, as I turned back to my Tequila Mule cocktail.”

See Also: Hyatt hotel strike near its end with contract ratified

“…eventually, the right owners spoke up. And then, things started to move.”

But San Francisco’s soon-to-be mayor wasn’t kidding. 

“He found out who were some owners within the industry, and he made some calls,” said Mike Casey, president of the San Francisco Labor Council, to Joe Garofoli. “And then some of those owners began to take more active interest in it. And you know, the ones who had the real skin in the game were the owners—the management companies (running the hotels) have to be accountable to them. And so eventually, the right owners spoke up. And then, things started to move.” (MSN)

Before Lurie’s successful behind-the-scenes intervention with Marriott, I’d have doubted he even knew about the strike. Color me and over 1,500 striking hotel workers pleasantly surprised. Our incoming mayor’s gesture suggests goodwill in time for the close of this year’s holiday season. If his pragmatism proves authentic, and he doesn’t lead with ego like I feel Breed did, I’ll renounce my wariness. Rich people I have never met are in fact responsible for most of what I find difficult about being alive.

Could Daniel Lurie restore civic pride by bridging the gap between classes? When Joe Garofoli said Lurie was off to “a good start,” was he speaking moralistically? 

Two down, one to go

Meanwhile, the struggle continues. 

One holdout, the Hilton corporation, hasn’t budged to their striking employees’ demands. “About 650 hotel workers continue to strike at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, the city’s largest hotel,” reported the Chronicle’s Sophia Bollag. The pressure is on with Marriott and Hyatt having already reconciled with their overworked and underpaid employees. 

“Hilton’s problems are only going to get worse if they try to treat their workers as second-class citizens,” union president Lizzy Tapia told Patrick Hoge (SF Examiner). “Hilton workers aren’t afraid to keep fighting if that’s what it takes to win, and we’re prepared to expand our strike to the Parc 55 if necessary. Hilton workers deserve the same standard as workers at Hyatt and Marriott.”

See also: Why are Influencers Crossing Hotel Strike Picket Lines?

“Mayor-elect Lurie reached out to us following his election and made some calls to key hotel owners that got the ball rolling here,” Ted Waechter, a spokesman for Unite Here Local 2, told the SF Examiner. “He has kept in contact with us throughout, and we welcome his continued involvement as we push on Hilton and Hyatt to follow Marriott’s lead and settle.”

“Hyatt and Marriott did the right thing,” Tapia said to the Chronicle. “Now all eyes are on Hilton.”

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