Graduates who are hired at unionized hotels – nearly 6 in 10 in the Boston area – typically start on $18 or more an hour, nearly double the state $10 minimum wage, plus union benefits that include family health plans and housing loans.
We’re talking about an industry that’s incredibly profitable. It’s expanding and investing here. Well, you’re coming to Boston. Let’s see you share the wealth,” he says.
Workers at the Wyndham hotel located across the street from Massachusetts General Hospital have been public with demands for stronger protection while cleaning rooms used by hospital patients.
The hotel settled with the National Labor Relations Board in December over worker complaints they’d faced surveillance and were offered money and benefits to stop organizing.
Rabbi Barbara Penzner of the Temple Hillel B’nai Torah synagogue, Father Philip C. Jacobs, and a representative of Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley returned to the Boston Wyndham hotel Thursday to speak with management about these concerns.
The hotel also faces proposed fines of $12,000 from OSHA for alleged violations related to worker safety.
The hotel is owned by Felcor, a Houston, Texas-based real estate investment trust. 
A recent $3 million grant from the federal government will allow Boston to double the amount of women and people of color it helps train for jobs in the construction and hospitality industries, to about 400 over the next five years.
Employees of the Harvard-owned DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Boston joined Local 26 and ratified a first union contract in October. Workers first sought changes from hotel management and Harvard University, which owns the hotel, in 2013. The contract will bring up the workers up to the same standard as all unionized hotel workers in Boston and Cambridge, including wages of more than $19 an hour and affordable health care. Harvard students were heavily involved in picket lines and a boycott during the 2-year campaign.
Welcome to Local 26!
September 18th, 2015 – UNITE HERE Local 26 is pleased to announce its endorsement of Tim McCarthy for District 5 of the Boston City Council.
The endorsement is a milestone in a long-standing relationship between the working families of Mattapan, Hyde Park and Roslindale and District five Councilor Tim McCarthy.
“Long before he was Councilor, Tim McCarthy was making our city a better place” said Brian Lang, President of Local 26. “Whether it is in the Council chambers or on Fairmont Avenue, the working people of District Five trust and believe in Tim McCarthy’s vision.”
UNITE HERE Local 26 represents over 7200 workers in the Greater Boston area including most of the major Boston-area hotels, food service workers on college campuses, convention centers, Fenway Park, and Logan Airport. UNITE HERE Local 26 is one of the most politically powerful and diverse unions in Greater Boston.
For more information contact Jaimie McNeil, UNITE HERE Local 26 at (617) 832-6643 or [email protected]