SAN DIEGO — Following weeks of striking by employees at San Diego's Hilton Bayfront hotel, a medical union Tuesday announced it has moved venues for its biennial convention as a show of solidarity.
The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals had scheduled its convention from Oct. 6-9 at the hotel, bringing around 1,000 union delegates from California and Hawaii. But hotel housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, bellhops and other employees have been on strike since Labor Day with Unite HERE Local 30 -- San Diego County's hotel and food service workers union.
"We do not take this step lightly," said Charmaine Morales, a registered nurse and union president. "We've held our convention at the Bayfront numerous times over the years. We put a lot of work and preparation into this year's celebration. But we've seen how hard these folks work every day and we appreciate what they do to care for hotel guests.
"Our choice is clear, as caregivers and union workers ourselves," Morales said. "We will not be divided. We stand in solidarity with the hundreds of hotel workers who are out there on the strike lines fighting for fair wages. One job should be enough to live on, even in San Diego."
The UNAC/UHCP represents thousands of workers locally, including at hospitals such as Sharp Healthcare, Kaiser San Diego, Paradise Valley Medical Center and Naval Medical Center San Diego. Unite HERE Local 30 represents more than 6,000 in the county, while 700 strike at the Bayfront.
The strike began as part of two dozen similar strikes around the country pushing for better pay and more manageable workloads for hospitality workers.
"Our members can't live in San Diego on what they're being paid," Bridget Browning, president of UNITE HERE Local 30, said on the first day of the strike. "They just can't survive the way things are going, between rent and groceries and all their other bills."
UNAC/UHCP delivered a letter of concern to hotel management two weeks ago.
Requests for comment from Hilton by City News Service were not immediately answered.
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