Hotel staff check out of strike that lasted decade

Their union said yesterday that it offered “unconditionally” to halt the strike, which began at the Congress Plaza Hotel in June 2003 over disputes involving wage cuts and other issues.

A hotel lawyer said it means if the workers do return to work they would do so under terms of the contract that expired a year before the strike began, including wages that the union argues are now half the city’s standard rate.

“The decision to end the Congress strike was a hard one, but it is the right time for the union and the strikers to move on,” said Henry Tamarin, president of Unite Here Local 1, which represented the workers.

“There is no more to do there,” he said. “We don’t see getting a contract here.”

The strike ranks among the longest in the US, lasting about four years less than a strike in California at the Diamond Walnut Growers’ plant in Stockton that is believed by experts to be the lengthiest in American history.

The Chicago strike may, however, rank as the country’s longest among hotel workers, said Cornell University labour relations professor Ileen DeVault.

Hotel lawyer Peter Andjelkovich said he was surprised by the union’s offer, which was included in a letter that Mr Tamarin handed him – along with a list of 130 workers who had gone on strike – on Wednesday.

“I asked him, ‘What’s this?’ And all he said was it has gone on long enough,” Mr Andjelkovich said.

But he noted that if the hotel agreed to accept the unconditional offer, there were many questions, including how many of the 130 workers were still available to return to work and how many jobs remained after the hotel hired replacements.

The workers would come back to jobs that paid far less than what other Chicago hotel workers earn, according to the union.

It said the standard salary for room attendance at the Congress was currently $8.83 (£5.80) an hour, the same as when the strike started, compared to the city-wide rate of $16.40 (£10.76) an hour.

In a statement, the union said jobs had been found for more than 60 of the strikers since the walk-out began. It was unclear how many, if any, of the striking workers would want to return to their jobs at the Congress.