This month, Unite Here Local 274, a labor union of nearly 4,000 private sector hotel and food service workers, is going on strike.
After 17 months without a new contract, Unite Here is demanding that their member’s salaries rise with inflation and that their workplace conditions improve.
On the morning of Tuesday, October 7th, under the overcast sky and inundating buildings in center city Philadelphia, a group of around 50 hotel employees marched along the perimeter of the Sheraton in Center City, chanting “No Contract, No Peace”. The tone of the event was marked by the workers distress from being without a contract, and their hopes of having significant leverage in negotiations.
In 2024, tourism brought in $4.5 billion to the city, a record according to Visit Philadelphia. In 2026, Philadelphia is set to host six World Cup matches and the MLB All-Star Game. Still, according to hotel employees, their labor is undervalued, and unfairly compensated.
“We have to show them that if you can’t even get us the basic things, we have to make a stand.” says Katrina, a housekeeper for the center city Sheraton. “The energy you see out here is the energy we bring to the hotel, to the guests, to our jobs. We just want the company to reciprocate. We’ve been without a contract since [May 2024], and we just started negotiating our new deals this June. The proposal [The Sheraton Hotel] came with was to extend our old contracts to 2029, as if last year had never happened.”
The decision to strike now is a calculated one. 2026 is set to be one of the largest years for tourism, if not the largest, in Philadelphia’s history. Analysts project the city to earn over $1 billion in the summer alone, when the city is set to host the MLB All-Star Game, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and six World Cup matches.
In a speech given to protestors, City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas called it “tourism on steroids”. A new report from Unite Here states that these events are expected to book a record 26,000 nights worth of hotel rooms in the summer months. The report estimates that the World Cup alone will create 6,000 jobs and $770 million in economic activity.
As the city looks ahead to next summer in the city, hospitality workers feel they’re being left behind. . “We’re understaffed. They want to cut employees and we’re already understaffed. You have to think, there are 765 rooms in there, and our cleaning staff is 54 people.” Katrina said, holding a sign reading “I believe in Philly’s future”.
“Everyone is doing the job of two people. We’re a shell of ourselves as far as employees are concerned.”
According to a representative of Unite Here, the negotiations remain unresolved. As of October 29th, no major changes have been made in the bargaining on either side, Unite Here said that a third four-day strike has been authorized by the city to take place at the Wyndham in Old City, but no date has been set.
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