After ten years on the picket line the longest hotel strike in history has ended. Employees of the Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago have given the hotel an "unconditional offer to return to work," reports the Chicago Sun Times.
Unite Here Local 1, which represents cleaning and maintenance workers, has confirmed through an attorney that they have ended the strike. Unite Here Local 1 president Henry Tamarin issued a statement.
"The decision to end the Congress strike was a hard one, but it is the right time for the union and the strikers to move on," Tamarin said. "The boycott has effectively and dramatically reduced the hotel's business. There is no more to do here."
130 workers went on strike ten years ago, it is unclear how many of them will actually plan on returning to their jobs now that the strike is over. Unite Here Local 1 says that they have been able to find jobs for 60 of their workers during the strike. Many have crossed the picket line and resumed working for the Congress Plaza, others have moved on to other jobs, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Tamarin told the Chicago Tribune that room attendants were paid $8.83 an hour when the strike started, a wage that has not changed at the Congress Plaza. Around the city the average wage is $16.40 an hour, according to Tamarin.
Tamarin seemed resigned to the idea that a contract would not get done with the hotel. Tamarin called the owner of the Congress Plaza "reclusive" and claimed that the owner "hasn't been to Chicago since the strike started," according to the Chicago Sun Times.
"We don't see getting a contract here," Tamarin said. "We have many more battles to fight for economic justice."
Many politicians have walked the picket line in solidarity with the workers over the ten years of the strike including then Senator Barack Obama and Gov. Pat Quinn, according to NBC News.
"The hotel treats their workers and customers equally poor and the community knows it. There is no more to do there," Tamarin said.
