Two weeks after signaling that a strike could be imminent, more than 100 unionized workers at Hyatt Regency Baltimore have ratified a contract that will significantly boost wages and health insurance affordability.

The 120 Hyatt workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 7 voted Friday to accept an agreement with the hospitality giant that runs through July 2028, the union announced. They include housekeepers, bellhops, cooks, banquet servers, bussers, food runners and operating engineers.

Workers at the Inner Harbor hotel had voted unanimously Nov. 30 to authorize a strike, meaning a walkout could have been called at any time if the union and company failed to reach an agreement. The parties have been bargaining since February, when the previous contract expired. Workers have walked picket lines numerous times outside the Light Street property.

The agreement “has really moved our folks to a different standard and a different tier than we were ever in before, which is a huge victory for us,” Tracy Lingo, president of UNITE HERE Local 7, said Saturday. “All our main goals that we set out to win, we were able to achieve in this contract.”

Lingo declined to offer specifics on wage increases but described the contract as “life-changing.”

Officials of Hyatt, a top global operator of luxury hotels and resorts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

The agreement follows a similar one reached in October by union members at the city-owned Baltimore Hilton. Hilton workers ratified that contract after more than 200 members went on strike for one day on Labor Day. Baltimore City owns the Hilton, but the hotel chain has a contract to manage the property at 401 W. Pratt St. Hotel workers are Hilton employees.

The Hilton workers’ four-year contract provided for “significant” wage increases and increased funding for pension and health care plans, UNITE HERE Local 7 said. The Hilton contract also includes language around fair pay for banquet workers and around subcontracting.

Workers at the two downtown Baltimore hotels were among 40,000 hotel workers represented by UNITE HERE that have been renegotiating contracts this year in more than 20 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

While contracts have been renegotiated separately, the union has combined efforts to advocate for change, Lingo said Saturday. The Hilton workers’ one-day strike, for instance, was part of a series of hotel worker walk-outs in eight other cities: Boston, Greenwich, Honolulu, Kauai, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose and Seattle. Strikes involving 2,500 workers are ongoing in San Francisco.

“We set out with a goal earlier this year to try to really change the standard for hotel workers across Baltimore,” Lingo said Saturday. Changes in pay scales and health benefits “really create maybe for the first time a real family-supporting wage.”

Jauquin Turnbridge, a cook at the Hyatt, has had to work a second job to support a family, Turnbridge said in a news release announcing the strike authorization.

“I can’t imagine how my co-workers who are making less can survive,” Turnbridge said.

The union has argued that Baltimore hotel workers have been left behind when compared with people in similar jobs in nearby cities such as Washington and Philadelphia.

Besides steps to close those gaps, the Hyatt contract addresses changes that have come about in the banquet industry since the COVID-19 pandemic, Lingo said. Banquet workers typically are paid a percentage of guest service charges. But since COVID, hoteliers have been offering discounts to attract business, which has pushed down banquet servers’ wages. Lingo said the contract offers some new protections.

It also made some changes related to sub-contracting, she said, in response to what the union sees as an over-reliance on temporary workers.

UNITE HERE Local 7 represents over 2,000 hotel, gaming, airport and food service workers throughout Maryland.

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