Striking SF hotel workers reach tentative deal with Marriott, others remain on picket line

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A nearly three-month-long hotel workers strike in San Francisco is almost over for thousands of employees, but the fight will continue for others.

A tentative deal has been reached between 2,000 striking hotel workers and Marriott, right in the thick of the holiday travel season.

This does not end the strike for the workers who walked off the job at Hilton and Hyatt hotels.

The tentative deal is for a four-year contract that will expire in 2028.

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It will preserve workers' union health insurance plans, pay increases, and new protections against understaffing and workload increases.

"This is a really important moment for us," Lizzy Tapia said. "What we've seen is the industry really tried to take advantage of the pandemic. Similar to other crises that have happened in the past. Like 2009 economic crisis and 2001, 9/11, where you see that there are real permanent cuts to staffing and services in the hotels and we've really tried to push back against that because we believe in this city. We want to see business come back here."

Thursday marks day 89 of the strike and Marriott said in a statement it was pleased to reach a new labor agreement.

Carlos Santamaria, who's a banquet server at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, is among those employees relieved about the new tentative agreement.

"It's important because it secure the healthcare for me and the family. It also secures wage increases for all of us, a pension for us and for the new generation," Santamaria said.

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Negotiations are still ongoing for hundreds of workers at Hyatt and Hilton hotels.

Outside the Hilton Union Square, hotel workers are still going strong, hoping to get their message across. Kenny Focht has worked for the past 27 years. He's at the bell desk in guest services. Even though Christmas is around the corner, Focht says the fight is not over.

"We are fighting for our health care, our medical coverage, and our wage increase," Focht said.

In response to the tentative deal hotel workers reached with the Marriott, Focht says he hopes that will pave the way for a deal for Hilton and the Hyatt and their employees.

"This is good good news. I'm very hopeful. I'm optimistically hopeful," Focht said.