‘Make them respect us’: Striking Seattle hotel workers apply for unemployment benefits
Jul 2, 2026, 4:00 PM
A photo of hotel employees tending to a guest's room. (Photo: Andreas Rentz, Getty Images)
(Photo: Andreas Rentz, Getty Images)
Hotel workers on strike at Seattle’s Embassy Suites Downtown Pioneer Square are signing up for unemployment benefits on Thursday.
Workers represented by UNITE HERE! Local 8 are entering their third week of the strike, calling for higher wages, year-round healthcare, restored pre-pandemic staffing levels, and protections against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions.
“The company is offering us pennies and refusing to work with us to make sure everyone has healthcare. It’s beyond disrespectful,” said Una Scott, a front desk agent at the Embassy Suites Seattle Downtown Pioneer Square. “The unemployment benefits for striking workers will let me pay some bills while my coworkers and I keep standing together to fight the massive corporation that is Hilton. We’re going to make them respect us.”
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State senator joins workers as the strike enters its third week
Workers included in the strike are cooks, housekeepers, dishwashers, front desk agents, and bartenders. They are also joined by Washington State Senator Rebecca Saldaña, Chair of the Senate Labor Committee, and a prime sponsor for legislation that established unemployment benefits for striking workers.
Sign-ups for the unemployment benefits for striking hotel workers are available at the Embassy Suites Strike Headquarters located at 422 2nd Avenue S. in Seattle from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The union noted that negotiations on Monday did not offer meaningful progress at the bargaining table, thus continuing the labor dispute. Striking union workers have asked guests and customers not to eat, sleep, or meet at the hotel.
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