BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Some of Boston’s striking hotel workers are back to work after reaching a new deal.
On Sunday, UNITE HERE Local 26 hotel workers at the Omni Boston Seaport and Omni Parker House hotels voted unanimously to ratify a new contract. The workers started an open-ended strike on Oct. 14, but they returned to their jobs at 4:00 a.m. on Monday.
At a press conference at the union headquarters on Sunday, the nearly 700 hotel workers were ecstatic as they were told the vote had passed. UNITE HERE Local 26 President Carlos Aramayo called the new contract “historic.”
“This contract guarantees $10 in wage increases for hotel workers over the next four years,” said Aramayo. “If working people focus on a goal and they fight hard for it and they don’t back down, they can win and we won.”
In addition to the pay raise, the union said they got their core demands of improved health care benefits and hiring and severance language. Aramayo praised Omni Hotels & Resorts for helping get the deal done.
“Omni had, frankly, the guts to step up and to bargain and to realize that these folks around me are the folks that make these hotels great hotels for people to come to,” said Aramayo.
Isaac Smith-Kawah, a cook at the Omni Boston Seaport Hotel, said the new contract completely changes his outlook on what he can achieve in life.
“The idea of home ownership is no longer a fantasy. It now feels like an attainable goal,” said Smith-Kawah.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.