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Workers At Downtown SF Hotel Launch 3-Day Strike

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Nov 5, 2009 9:48 am US/Pacific

Workers At Downtown SF Hotel Launch 3-Day Strike

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―

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Hotel workers in San Francisco started a three-day strike Thursday morning and are picketing outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in Union Square after contract negotiations with hotel management failed to produce agreements, a union spokesman said.

About 100 workers were picketing Thursday morning outside the hotel, located at 345 Stockton St., said Ian Lewis, a spokesman for Unite Here Local 2.

The union represents about 12,000 employees in the hospitality industry in San Francisco and on the Peninsula, including room cleaners, cooks, food servers, bellmen, bartenders and dishwashers.

Lewis said about 340 workers at the hotel will be participating in the strike and will be taking turns picketing 24 hours a day over a three-day period.

The workers will return to work Sunday morning, but are calling on customers to honor an ongoing boycott of the hotel. Union workers at other San Francisco hotels remain on the job, but job actions elsewhere still remain a possibility.

The union is negotiating separately with each of the 31 hotels where its members work, including those owned by Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Intercontinental.

Mike Casey, president of Unite Here Local 2, said in a statement that the strike is "intended to send a clear signal to this corporation that they cannot use a temporary downturn to permanently drive down workers' living standards."

Workers have been without a contract since Aug. 14.