About 600 union workers at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront have gone on strike just a day before Comic-Con begins. The annual San Diego Comic-Con is back in person this year for the first time since 2019 and is scheduled to run from Thursday, July 21 to Sunday, July 24. Some of the weekend’s most highly anticipated panels include Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, and Marvel Studios featuring Kevin Feige and other surprise guests.
The Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel is located directly adjacent to the convention center that will host Comic-Con over the weekend. Rumblings about a potential walkout began among hotel workers last Friday when hundreds voted to give their union leadership the authority to call a strike. Following the vote, it was understood that leaders of Unite Here Local 30 would declare a strike if they felt the hotel was unwilling to make an “acceptable” offer for better pay and benefits.
Times of San Diego [via CBR] has confirmed that the strike began this morning after 13 hours of negotiations that failed to reach a consensus. Hotel employees were seeking a $4 per hour pay raise implemented over two years. Management countered an offer to raise wages by $2.50 over 18 months. Before negotiations began, San Diego mayor Todd Gloria emphasized that the union workers “deserve a fair contract with pay, benefits, and hours that reflect that their work is essential to the health of San Diego’s economy.”
The strike could spell some trouble for Comic-Con, given that the Hilton San Diego Bayfront traditionally houses many of the convention’s most high-profile attendees. With housekeepers, front desk agents, laundry attendants, cooks, dishwashers, and bussers included in this strike, Comic-Con organizers likely find themselves in a difficult position as they scrape a backup plan together.
As far as the thousands of fans with plans to attend, the strike will likely do little to dissuade them. Ticket holders for the 2020 convention had their passes rolled over to 2021 when the pandemic forced its cancellation, then rolled over again to this year’s Con. Despite the two-year delay, so many people held on to their tickets that Comic-Con didn’t even open a formal ticket sale this year; attendees will be those who thought they were going two summers ago. The strike’s repercussions on Comic-Con may become more apparent as Preview Night gets underway later this evening.
