Hospitality workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 25 picket outside the Williamsburg Inn (WYDaily / Ben Mackin)
WILLIAMSBURG – Dozens of hospitality workers at Colonial Williamsburg (CW) in front of the two Williamsburg Lodge on South England Street and the Williamsburg Inn on Francis Street, calls for higher wages and better treatment.
The early morning protests started at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 11th, with two more scheduled later in the day at Chownings tavern and King’s Arms Tavern, both on Duke of Gloucester Street.
The workers on the picket line are represented by UNITE HERE Local 25 (Local 25), a hospitality trade union in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC Local 25 and CW have been switching back and forth at the negotiating table since May 2021, and talks are ongoing, according to union representative Benjy Cannon.
Both parties are currently trying to reach an agreement on a trade union agreement that expired on November 30th.
In a statement published on December 3, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF) stated that there have been increases in salaries for non-union workers and that they want to extend them to members of Local 25, but that it is unable to meet certain conditions set by the union.
While the representatives of both sides continue to speak in the boardrooms, the hospitality workers will continue to make their voices heard on the street.
Hospitality workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 25 picket outside the Williamsburg Inn (WYDaily / Ben Mackin)
“This is a walk and a job,” said Cannon. “People come before their shifts and we’ll see what happens if we don’t get anywhere this week. We are now calling for a boycott of this property [Williamsburg Lodge], the Williamsburg Inn, Chowning’s Tavern and Kings Arms Tavern ”
For hospitality workers like Willie Brown, who has been a housekeeper at CW for six years, the forced overtime and low pay are a burden on him and his colleagues.
“We don’t have time for our families,” Brown said during the demonstration. “They just put us on the schedule six days a week and they don’t care.”
Brown says workers’ problems with Colonial Williamsburg’s treatment go back several years.
“We should have gotten a raise two or three years ago,” he said. “Now we have people who worked through the pandemic and you [CW] should appreciate us. We risk our lives and they just don’t care. We don’t get a bonus. No nothing. But it got so bad that they wanted to bring new employees here and pay them a $ 500 bonus for a worker, $ 1,500 for a supervisor, nothing for people who were here. “
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