You Can’t Move All Your Hotels to Mexico: Unions and the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

[Excerpt] For many years, most hotel workers were not a particular focus of the labor movement. Traditionally, hotel employees were not highly paid, often worked for tips, and did not stay in bargaining-unit positions for the duration of their careers. Since union dues are composed of a percentage of employee base pay (excluding tips) and because union members who benefit the most are those who stay at the same job for long periods of time, a hotel was not the model employer on which the union movement would theoretically wish to concentrate its efforts. If you worked in the hospitality industry, this made your life easier, because instead of organizing hotel or restaurant employees, the union movement focused on "heavy labor," the skilled and semiskilled employees of America's factories. This has changed.