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(Above) Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile, as it was called last year, next to Lurie Children’s Hospital (at right in photo).

Strike settlement part of deal that will pay hotels to shelter COVID-19 patients.

24-Mar-20 – A strike by hotel workers in Chicago that tested the patience of downtown residents for more than a year has finally been settled.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Monday that as part of a deal for the city to pay hotels to shelter COVID-19 patients, Hotel One Sixty-Six, formerly known as Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile, would have to settle with Unite Here Local 1.

Cambria is the last hotel to settle with the union. The strike started on September 7, 2018, and at one time involved 26 hotels in Chicago.

Strikers did not just carry picket signs. As they walked in circles in front of hotels, they made noise, using drums, sirens, loud chanting, megaphones, and other noisemakers, sometimes starting as early as 7:15 a.m. and at least one time going all night. The noise echoed in the concrete canyons of the Loop, River North, and Streeterville.

Video: About 30 striking hotel workers walk in a circle in front of Hotel Palomar at 505 North State Street in Chicago on September 18, 2018, carrying signs and making noise with bullhorns, shouting, banging on drums, whistles, and other devices.

They were no quieter in front of the Cambria, despite it being located next to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital on East Superior Street in Streeterville.

On June 13, 2019, city prosecutor Natalia Delgado sent a cease-and-desist letter to Unite Here Local 1, informing the union of violations of the Chicago Noise Ordinance and an agreement that settled a lawsuit the union had filed against the city.

The letter to Patrick Calihan, the union’s legal representative, said noise created by the strikers was “interfering with vital health care-giving functions” of Lurie Children’s Hospital.

Unite Here Local 1

(Left) Photo by Unite Here Local 1 of strikers in front of the Cambria in December 2019. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

(Right) Frame from security video at Cambria showing strikers in front of the hotel at night.

Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile

Hospital staff tried to reason with the union, inviting representatives of Unite Here Local 1 to a presentation and discussion about how the noise was adversely affecting sick and injured children, their families, and their health care providers.

According to Delgado, the presentation did have an impact on the noise. “The union in fact increased its noise levels...despite multiple requests from Lurie Hospital and demands from the city that the union reduce its noise levels.”

Neighbors said the cease-and-desist letter, delivered to a union representative in front of the Cambria by a Chicago Police Department supervisor, had an intermittent effect on the noise.

Deal with hotels will take burden off hospitals

By Friday, according to Mayor Lightfoot, more than 1,000 hotel rooms at multiple hotels will be available for people exposed to or mildly ill with COVID-19 and not in need of hospital care. They will be quarantined in their hotel rooms and monitored by City of Chicago personnel, under the supervision of the Chicago Department of Public Health. Hotel workers will not directly interact with guests.

Lori Lightfoot

Lightfoot (left) says the plan will “take the burden off of hospitals amid this unprecedented pandemic” and “create new revenue-generating capacity for local hotel operators, which have experienced revenue losses as fewer travelers have come into the city.”

According to Lightfoot, because of the strike settlement, “many of the hotel’s employees will return to work with raises, healthcare, and no increase in workload for hotel housekeepers.”

The hotel changed its name in February. Hotel One Sixty-Six is owned by Fillmore Capital Partners, based in San Francisco.

 Previous story: Neighbors report quieter hotel strikers month after cease-and-desist from city