A group of pilot and flight attendant unions representing more than 180,000 airline employees have called for a boycott of a popular Marriott hotel in the Back Bay district of Boston because hotel bosses have brought in cheaper contractors from Florida and Texas for a hotel-wide renovation.
The unions claim airline crew on layovers account for a near year-round 30 per cent occupancy rate of the massive 1,097 room Marriott Copley Place hotel. For security reasons, the details of which airlines use the hotel remains undisclosed.
The hotel offers a large conference facility but occupancy has been hit by the continuing effects of the pandemic so the airline crew business offers a steady and predictable income for the hotel.
The airline unions, however, say they working to move crew to other hotels in the area unless management start hiring local union labor for the renovation project.
“We are mobilizing at all levels of our unions and engaging with airline management to move our business to other hotels until you have resolved this dispute to the satisfaction of our allied unions,” an open letter from the unions informed the hotel.
“We will not be using your hotel while you undermine the working people of Boston. We do not cross the picket line”.
The letter was signed by seven airline unions including the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) which represents 50,000 U.S.-based crew members alone, along with American Air’s flight attendants union, the Allied Pilot Association and the Southwest Pilots Union.
On Friday, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants joined in a rally and picket outside the hotel demanding the hotel stop paying visiting contractors below area wages.
Nelson has been a fierce critic of labor practices within the hotel industry and has frequently supported striking hotel staff who have been fighting for better working conditions.
The Marriott Copley Place is also used as a layover crew for international flight attendants but they may also not escape the protest action. In May 2021, Lufthansa ignored a picket line at a layover hotel in Vancouver but flight attendants ended up being targeted by the striking staff.
In one incident, a bus driver who was taking Lufthansa flight attendants to the hotel allegedly ran over the foot of a protestor who was blocking their en. race to the hotel. In another incident, protestors targeted the Luthansa crew at the airport.
Typical Union bullying here in the US. Massachusetts is a “Right to Work State”.
Stupid airline unions butting into something that has nothing to do with airlines
I despise unions and these airline employees need to do their jobs and butt out! I have seen airlines go broke over the years and not from mismanagement but from bullying thugs demanding money when the airline was already in trouble and then blaming management when they closed down. They’re just another big business feeding money to democrats. Is this still America or what???!!! Sometimes I wonder sadly. These protestors are an embarrassment. Dictating who a business must deal with. How dare they!!! God help us!
Perhaps the local union shouldn’t price themselves out of the market.
They demand it, do they? Well, when they run the company they can make those choices.
In the meantime, they are free to stay somewhere else and pay for it out of their own pocket.
Glad to see solidarity among labor. It’s the only way to stop the race to the bottom.
A flight attendant union targeted a van of overseas flight attendants who have nothing to do with any of this and just wanted to rest before their next shift. Not a good look. Leave them alone and let them live their lives.
Idiots! Good job looking uninformed. This is done all across the US. Would it also be a good practice for passengers to use a local airline ? Yes, that’s absurd.
Sounds like a very good business decision on Marriott’s end! I’m in the hotel renovation business and guess what? BWAHAHAHA!!!