A group of hotel workers at Hilton’s Buena Vista Palace near Orlando formed a picket line outside Disney Springs on Wednesday, amid drizzling rain, to uplift the message of their union: “One job should be enough.”
Hotel workers at the Hilton hotel, located near Disney’s shopping and entertainment complex, are unionized with UNITE HERE Local 737, a hospitality labor union that also represents thousands of Disney World employees.
A range of housekeepers, bartenders, service employees and others who work at the 4-star Hilton hotel are currently in talks with their employer for a new union contract, after their last contract — negotiated in 2020 — expired on Dec. 31, 2024.
For Amanda Garcia and her wife Victoria, both of whom work at the hotel, their biggest priorities are fighting for competitive pay and a better pension in their next contract.
“The pay for right now is very low compared to what’s comparable to the other restaurants, or just the quick service that’s around in this area,” said Amanda, who’s worked in food service at the hotel for a little over a year and makes $14.50 an hour. “We’re like, almost $5 off compared to other hotels, even another Hilton across the street,” she said.
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Despite displaying the Hilton name, not all Hilton hotels are operated by the multi-billion dollar company. Similar to a franchisee system, some of the hotels are operated by companies that enter into agreements with Hilton. Such agreements generally require revenue sharing or some sort of fee in exchange for using Hilton logos and branding.
Victoria, a pool service attendant of four years who serves food and drinks to guests at the Hilton Buena Vista Palace, said one of her hopes is to secure an auto gratuity for workers like herself who rely on tips.
As the hotel has increased its prices for stays, Victoria said some guests — especially during summer months — will be somewhat understandably stingy. “During busy seasons, we get a lot of zero dollars on many checks,” she explained. “So we’re just working on auto [gratuity], just so that we can get a guarantee.”
Similar to Amanda’s example, Victoria said an 18 to 20 percent auto gratuity on guest checks for poolside food and beverage service is pretty standard at other local hotels. And it’s helpful for pool attendants like herself, who earn $11.96 an hour under their union contract, and who see fluctuations in earnings based on whether Florida’s unpredictable weather draws guests out or pushes them inside.
Amanda says that, although they don’t control the pricing of goods and services at the hotel, sometimes they nevertheless end up bearing the brunt of guests’ complaints.
“You get a parfait for 10 bucks, like, you get upset about it,” she explained, sheepishly. “That’s just how that happens.” Unfortunately for service workers like herself, the union says that the hotel’s price hikes for guests isn’t trickling down.
Housekeepers at Hilton Buena Vista Palace, for instance, currently earn $16 an hour, compared to $22 at unionized Disney World resort hotels, one UNITE HERE organizer confirmed. Older workers, some of whom have worked at the hotel for decades, are still earning subpar wages compared to others in their industry.
Jose Castillo, a 61-year-old engineer at Buena Vista Palace who deals with AC malfunctions and other maintenance tasks, has worked at the hotel for 14 years and is paid $19 an hour. “You go everywhere around the town, you go on construction site[s] right now, they are making probably $10 more than we’re making,” said Castillo.
A former construction worker himself, Castillo left that industry due to his age and the toll of the work. More than a decade ago, Castillo wryly admits, he was making more money in construction than he is today at a hotel located within a stone’s throw of one of the country’s top tourist attractions.
“It’s not fair,” he argued. “We are human beings. We’re working for, you know, to feed our families.” Working people, he said, shouldn’t have to work two or three jobs “just to put food to your table.”
He, Victoria, and Amanda are part of a united front.
Last May, workers employed by Buena Vista Palace released their list of priorities for their next union contract, which included higher pay and a better pension plan that allows older workers to retire with dignity, instead of holding onto their jobs just to make ends meet in one of the most cost-burdened metros in the U.S.
The union is also advocating for improvements to housekeepers’ workloads, more affordable healthcare coverage, and an end what they call the “exploitation” of nonunion temporary workers that Hilton hires through temp agencies — a practice workers say has become more common since the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving in-house staff to train endless cycles of co-workers who come in, without any additional pay.
Such temp workers have also been replacing in-house staff, according to the union. Before the pandemic, the union represented about 330 staff at the hotel, according to one organizer. Today, they represent about 240.
“I think that when we’re united and we can fight, that we can win,” said Castillo. “And if everybody is part of the union and everybody knows the power that we have when we’re united, they probably realize that we can get whatever we deserve.”
The union’s last bargaining session with hotel management, to discuss terms of their next contract, was in January. There is no future meeting currently scheduled, a union rep confirmed.
In the meantime, with their contract expired, the company now has the ability to withhold union members’ dues from going to Unite Here. Workers also don’t have to adhere to terms of their now-expired contract, including a no-strike clause. The union declined to comment on whether a strike could be in their future, should the hotel continue to drag their feet or resist workers’ demands.
Usually, in such cases, a strike action would first need to be approved through a strike vote by a majority of the workers themselves. Union leadership can’t call on workers to walk off the job unilaterally.
For Amanda, the food service worker, participating in Wednesday’s picket line action — and hearing the honks of solidarity from cars driving by — felt “exhilarating.”
Representatives of other local unions, such as the United Auto Workers and Communications Workers of America, also joined picket lines set up by workers on Wednesday, along with representatives from Central Florida Jobs With Justice, U.S. Congressman Darren Soto’s office, as well as Orlando City Council candidate Tom Keen, Orange County commissioner Mayra Uribe, and Christian Service Center CEO (and candidate for Orange County Commission) Eric Gray.
Before Amanda worked at the hotel, she worked at a local fire department, where her job was also covered by a union. That experience convinced her to get involved with the union at her hotel following the job transition. “I understood coming into it, what the union meant,” she explained. Better pay and an opportunity to fight to improve workers’ quality of life. She also convinced her wife to join.
“We’re just trying to make sure that we’re taken care of just as much as we’re taking care of the guests,” she added.
This post has been updated to correct Victoria’s hourly wage: She is paid $11.96 an hour, not $15 an hour as stated in an earlier version of this story.
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This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2025.