Friday, February 7, 2025

“Enough is Enough”: Colonial Williamsburg Hospitality Workers to Rally for Fair Wages, Better Working Conditions During Grand Illumination

Hospitality workers at Colonial Williamsburg are demanding a fair contract that addresses their working conditions. (WYDaily file/ Gregory Connelly)

WILLIAMSBURG — Hundreds of Colonial Williamsburg’s hospitality workers are set to rally on Saturday, Dec. 4, the day of the Grand Illumination celebration, to call for better wages and treatment.

From experiencing extended layoffs during the pandemic to returning to work long work weeks, employees in the hotel and restaurant industry at Colonial Williamsburg (CW) are making their voices heard.

Represented by UNITE HERE Local 25, a hospitality workers union, the employees are demanding a contract that addresses challenging work conditions during the current round of contract negotiations.

John Boardman, union representative, said that they are attempting to bring a contract, which dates back to the 1960s, into the 21st century during the course of these negotiations.

“The overwhelming majority of the contract is pretty much the same as it has been for more than 50 years,” Boardman said. “It reflects labor management relations of that time, and, as you might imagine, the world has changed significantly since then.”

Boardman noted that the hospitality workers covered by the contract have not received raises in over three years.

“That goes back to before the pandemic happened,” he said. “We’re trying to get the wages up to a level where people aren’t living in poverty. And there are a number of people who work at Colonial Williamsburg who fall below the federal poverty level.”

The hospitality employees are also fighting for an end to mandatory overtime.

“We have housekeepers who, for the past year, have regularly been required to work six and seven days a week,” Boardman said. “They’re ready to drop.”

Agatha Hilt, who has worked in housekeeping at Colonial Williamsburg for 11 years, spoke about burnout and exhaustion that she has experienced from her job.

“I have two boys and a husband. Sometimes when I come home, I don’t get to cook,” she said. “Six days. Six days. I don’t have time to go to the store to buy food. I don’t have time to go to the doctor. That is not right.”

Hilt said that housekeepers are often required to clean over 20 rooms a day. Some days, she does not even have time to eat lunch.

Hilt hopes to put an end to the unsafe conditions that she and other housekeepers have to work in.

“We want better pay, better healthcare, better treatment, because we deserve it,” she said. “We work too hard.”

After a year-and-a-half, the union was able to bring CW to the table six months ago to discuss the contract, Boardman said.

The union said that the company proposed continuing the contract for another year, before discussing things further but without promise that there will be any changes.

“So they’re saying to people who have been loyal, who have been showing up to work, who haven’t had any raises for three years, ‘We just want to continue the conditions that you have,” Boardman said.

(Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
Colonial Williamsburg’s hospitality workers are set to rally on Saturday, Dec. 4, the day of the Grand Illumination Celebration, to call for better wages and treatment. (Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

“And the workers are saying, ‘We’re done with this. We’ve tried to be cooperative, we’ve continued to work with no raises, we’ve continued to work in unsafe working conditions, and enough is enough. And now, we’re going to start letting the public know what the conditions are that we’re working under and why we want to change them,'” he said.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation issued the following statement in response to the upcoming rally:

“The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has negotiated in good faith with Unite Here Local 25 over more than 18 negotiation sessions since May to renew its contract for Colonial Williamsburg’s hospitality employees. The current contract expired Nov. 30 and both organizations mutually agreed to continue negotiations. Despite this, union leaders have taken to social media demanding a contract and are now planning a protest during Grand Illumination.

To set the record straight, Colonial Williamsburg has been trying for many months to give material pay raises to union employees, who have worked hard and endured much throughout the pandemic. They are very deserving of a wage increase—which we are eager to provide—as we already did for our non-union employees earlier this year. We are hopeful to reach agreement with the union’s negotiators soon so that we can finally enact these pay raises, ahead of the December holidays.

In the meantime we will continue negotiating with Unite Here Local 25 to reach a contract that treats union employees fairly while also allowing Colonial Williamsburg the opportunity to succeed in the challenging environment we all face. We have already agreed to many of the union’s demands but are unable to agree to provisions that, for example, would allow union representatives from Washington D.C to interrupt our employees in their work areas during work hours to discuss union business, or eliminate the use of temporary employees, who play an important role in easing the workloads of Colonial Williamsburg employees during busy times of the year. We are frustrated that issues like these have slowed down our ability to give our hardworking employees a long overdue raise.

Colonial Williamsburg believes strongly that our employees—for whom we are very grateful—should not be penalized financially as a result of this disagreement with the union. Going public with our disagreements is not how we had hoped to continue these negotiations with the union, but Foundation leaders are committed to working hard to get a fair agreement.”

While the company said that it has attempted for months to give material pay raises to union employees, the union noted that they proposed retroactive backpay to August once the wage increase goes into effect, which the company rejected. 

The employees will gather Saturday at noon on the Northwest corner of S. England Street and Newport Avenue, where they will share their stories with the public, a majority of which will be there for the Grand Illumination festivities.

“They want to use this, an important period to Colonial Williamsburg management, to demonstrate that they are the important part of this operation,” Boardman said. “It’s not just the bricks and mortar, it’s the people that work there that make this place what it is.” 

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