A new three-year union contract grants hotel workers at the Omni Providence a 17% increase in wage in the first year to offset inflation and costs of living, a UNITE HERE! Local 26 representative confirmed. (Anisha Kumar/Rhode Island Current)
Workers at the Omni Providence this week ratified a new four-year contract providing them with higher wages and better benefits, the hospitality workers’ union UNITE HERE! Local 26 announced Thursday.
The vote on Tuesday, Sept. 24, came seven weeks after workers at the 564-room downtown Providence hotel voted to authorize a strike to protest the Omni’s unwillingness to negotiate a new contract after their previous one expired last January. Workers cited cost of living concerns, including housing and childcare, in their demands for increased wages.
Omni Providence Hotel workers vote to authorize a strike
Union members had been wearing lanyards to work to indicate that they’d signed up for strike benefits and were ready and willing to strike, said George Cook, a banquet worker at the Omni.
“After that, the company contacted us to sit down for negotiations,” Cook said.
Union workers and hotel representatives conducted two negotiation sessions. The final session ran from 12 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday morning, concluding with a tentative agreement that was later ratified Tuesday.
The final agreement includes a 17% increase in wage in the first year of the contract to offset inflation and costs of living, a Local 26 representative said. The contract also keeps health care coverage at the same rate as in years past so that raises aren’t offset by insurance costs. It will remain in effect until January 2028.
“In negotiations, it’s a give and take, and we may have made an adjustment here or there, but it’s a contract that we’re happy with,” Cook said. He added that the hotel met all of Local 26’s main demands.
The Omni Providence did not respond to requests for comment.
Cook cited union workers’ willingness to go on strike as a key factor in the hotel’s change of heart.
“With the negotiations, there was a time when I think a lot of us felt like, you know what, we’re gonna have to go on strike,” he said. “The fact that we were able to get it done without going on strike was very, very, very big for us.”
Still, workers demonstrated a willingness to “work with the hotel to get what we want,” he added.
Shakira Abad Payano, a room inspector for the Omni, said the new contract alleviated her need to work multiple jobs at a time to provide for her family.
“I can spend more time with my children, and we can go on vacation every year,” Abad Payano said in a news release from the union.
“We’re all excited. We’re all happy for our contract,” Cook said. “At the same time, we want our brothers and sisters in the other Omni Hotels to get their contract as well.”
Workers at the Omni Parker House and Omni Boston Seaport, who recently went on strike, have are yet to resolve their contracts, the release stated.
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