Thousands of hotel workers in Boston could go on strike at any time this weekend, as their existing contracts expire at midnight and there's been no sign of any new negotiations.
The Hilton Boston Park Plaza is one of 35 area hotels that would be affected. One longtime Hilton employee tells NBC10 Boston that the strike is inevitable.
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In the final hours leading up to a possible strike, hotel workers represented by Unite Here Local 26 were preparing signs for the picket line and leaving with them in hand.
"I held onto hope until the last minute," Susie Cuelho said. "They haven’t contacted us."
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Cuelho is ready to strike along with more than 4,500 area hotel workers in Boston and Cambridge alone. She's been an operator at the Boston Logan Airport Hilton for 21 years but says this is more than a job.
"When my mom immigrated into this country, she worked there as a housekeeper. She was pregnant with me while working at the hotel and I'm the Hilton baby, and this really breaks my heart," she said through tears.
Cuelho says hotel workers were left with no choice but to take action. The union overwhelmingly voted to strike three weeks ago if they couldn't come to an agreement with hotel management by the end of the night on Aug. 31.
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Wages, pensions, work rules and insurance benefits are the key issues.
This would be the first regionwide hotel strike in local history -- one that would be detrimental to the tourism industry. Of course, the timing is especially poor during this holiday weekend in the city.
But Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has let them know they have the city's full support: "That is what a vote to strike means. It tells the world that you know who you are and you know what your work is worth."
After midnight, a strike could happen at any hour, at any hotel, and workers say they're prepared to walk out.
