Just as San Diego Comic-Con 2022 was gearing up to hold its first in-person show in three years, hundreds of employees at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, a hotel heavily connected to the event, went on strike. CBR staff is on-site and can confirm the strike is officially in effect.Employees at the hotel have been without a contract since November, and according to The San Diego Union-Tribune, 450 employees went on strike late Tuesday after agreeing to authorize union leadership to organize a strike if progress on the talks fell through. Unite Here Local 30, an organization representing hotel workers throughout the United States, said the negotiations stalled at 10 PM Tuesday after 13 hours of debate. A tweet from More Perfect Union also noted that Bayfront wanted to increase workers' monthly parking cost from $45 to $65, which Unite Here planned to block.
"We have been negotiating for months," said Rick Bates, the director of policy for the union. "We are demanding $4.00 (hourly) increases (over two years) and the company offered $2.50 and no stay-over cleaning. We can't allow room attendants to continue suffering in a billion-dollar industry."
Bates further explained that the $2.50-an-hour raise was to be made over a period of 18 months and only if the union agreed to drop demands for daily housekeeping of rooms. According to Bates, such terms are unacceptable because Unite Here estimates that not maintaining daily housekeeping reduces workers' hours by 30 percent, negating the effect of the wage increase. Although the employees make considerably more than minimum wage, ranging from $19.30 to $20.65 an hour, extraordinarily high housing costs in the county make it challenging to stay afloat.
The strike could potentially cause massive disruptions to San Diego Comic-Con, which returns to an in-person format this weekend for the first time in three years. Bayfront's Indigo Ballroom hosts large panels and special events like this year's Rick and Morty: The Vindicators and Archer Season 13 special screenings and live Q&A panels. The hotel also hosts press events, and many media organizations, including CBR, use it as a base of operations to conduct interviews with creators and Hollywood celebrities during the con.
This year's Comic-Con promises to be particularly massive, especially given its lengthy hiatus. Marvel plans to present several massive showcases, with rumors of major cast announcements and first looks at its films, television, comics and other ventures. DC also has several major events on the schedule, such as the first look at Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
San Diego Comic-Con International runs from July 20-24.
Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune, Twitter