More than 10,000 hotel workers go on strike
Some 10,000 hotel workers in eight cities across the US represented by the Unite Here union went on strike Sunday and workers in Baltimore joined them today, demanding better pay and working conditions. The strikes primarily affect hotels that are part of the Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott chains as housekeepers, in particular, are reporting that eliminating daily cleaning has made each room more difficult to clean and their workload impossible. Contract talks between the hotels and Unite Here have been ongoing since May. A Hilton spokesperson stated the company is committed to negotiating "fair and reasonable agreements," while Hyatt mentioned it has contingency plans to minimize guest disruptions during the strike and emphasized its history of cooperation with employee unions, including Unite Here.
Full Story: Axios (9/2), The Wall Street Journal (9/1), CNN (9/2), The Associated Press (9/1)  |
Delta Air Lines (Eric Thayer/Getty Images) |
More than a month after a glitch in CrowdStrike software tanked computers across the globe, Delta Air Lines, CrowdStrike and Microsoft are warring over who is to blame -- and who will pay -- for the exceptionally bad impact on Delta's systems that canceled flights for days. "If we were to do it over again, of course, we would have made some different operational decisions--maybe canceled sooner, and tried to reset the operations quicker," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian, but the amount of time recovery took "clearly was a CrowdStrike problem."
Full Story: The Wall Street Journal (9/3) Residents of Juneau are poised to vote Oct. 1 on preventing cruise ships from docking on Saturdays, pitting residents who want breathing room in the streets and on the water against business interests that depend on tourism. McHugh Pierre, CEO of the Native corporation Goldbelt and chair of an effort to defeat the referendum, says 400 jobs "would go away" and businesses would shut down on Saturdays if ships cannot dock then. Full Story: NBC News (8/30) |
North Carolina tourism spending hit a record $35 billion dollars in 2023, up 22% from 2019, but employment in the tourism sector is 6% below 2019 levels. Wit Tuttell, director of Visit North Carolina, said a strong labor market where unemployment has not gone higher than 3.6%, means that it is harder to hire seasonal workers. Full Story: WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill, N.C.) (8/30) |
Hundreds of flights were delayed at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday due to a "radar issue" as travelers sought to get home after a record Labor Day travel weekend. United Airlines, which operates a hub at the New Jersey airport, was most affected. Full Story: Simple Flying (9/2),  CBS News (9/2)
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