SAN FRANCISCO — Tourists have been flocking here all summer, plunking down credit cards to cover rising room prices and filling hotels at the highest rate since 9/11 and the dot-com bust.
But for the second time in two years, the city is bracing for a potential strike at 13 of its largest hotels that could cost millions in tourism dollars.
Two weeks after union members authorized a strike, the increasing tensions were apparent Thursday as hundreds of the more than 4,200 hotel workers took turns picketing in front of the historic St. Francis Hotel on Union Square. Members of Unite Here Local 2 have been working without a contract since 2004, despite a two-week strike and seven-week lockout that fall.
"Very soon, we're going to have a contract or we're going to have a strike," said Unite Here Local 2 spokeswoman Valerie Lapin. "Two years is too long to wait."
Key sticking points remain affordable health insurance, wage increases and workload protections. Negotiators have been meeting morning through night for 11 days to hammer out a deal.
The union's dispute is with some of the city's best-known hotels, which are negotiating as a group. The hotels are Crowne Plaza San Francisco Union Square, Fairmont, Four Seasons, Grand Hyatt, Hilton San Francisco, Holiday Inn Civic Center, Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf, Holiday Inn Express & Suites at Fisherman's Wharf, Hyatt Regency, Mark Hopkins, Omni San Francisco, Sheraton Palace and Westin St. Francis.
Noah Griffin, spokesman for the hotels, said the group was committed to a contract that was fair and equitable.
"Nobody benefits from a work stoppage," Griffin said. "It's going to be settled in the suites and not on the streets."
But union officials said the hotels had responded only to direct pressure.
"We are cautiously optimistic that we can get a settlement," said Lamoin Werlein-Jaen, the union's secretary-treasurer. "But we want to send a message that we are willing to do whatever it takes to get a good contract."
On Thursday, boisterous workers -- some in housekeeping uniforms -- carried picket signs and bullhorns, chanting "Contract now."
Leslie Salmeron, 31, cleans rooms at the Hilton San Francisco for $15.08 an hour. He said he hadn't received a raise in three years and couldn't afford the nearly $270 monthly increase in health insurance costs, from $10 a month now, that the hotels had sought. That offer was pulled, as well as one that would have left health benefits unchanged for current workers but increased the cost for new workers.
