Amid strike, Streeterville’s Cambria hotel changes name

Unite Here Local 1 said a Streeterville hotel it has targeted in an ongoing strike has lost its branding affiliation amid an ongoing decline in business.

The former Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile, 166 E. Superior St., shed that name over the weekend and now calls itself Hotel One Sixty-Six. Local 1 has been on strike against the hotel since September 2018. It is the only strike left in what started as a walkout affecting 26 hotels citywide.

The Cambria brand is part of Choice Hotels International. Local 1 spokesman Elliott Mallen said the union doesn’t know why the Cambria name was removed but speculated it was related to lost business and declining standards because of the strike. Choice Hotels did not reply to a request for comment.

In July, the union estimated the strike has cost the hotel $300,000 in bookings. Mallen said the strike involves 30 workers, mostly housekeepers but including bellhops, bartenders and cooks.

He said the main issue is the hotel’s demand for an increase in housekeepers’ daily quota of room responsibilities to 15 from 13. “This is a totally unacceptable increase in the workload. No other hotel insisted on an increase in the quota as part of a new contract,” Mallen said.

The hotel’s general manager and representatives of its operator, Fillmore Hospitality, and its owner, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, did not respond to requests for comment.

“Why does Fillmore keep trying to put more and more work on us housekeepers?” said Yolanda Garduno, a striking room attendant. Noting the name One Sixty-Six, she said, “This is one sick, sick hotel.”

Mallen said the union has made its case to the pension fund but that “it has declined to direct Fillmore to settle the strike. We think that is ultimately to the detriment of the pension fund.”

Local 1 reported the lost business included a cancellation by British tour operator Great Rail Journeys, worth an estimated $230,000 through 2020. Other cancellations it cited included cast members of the musical “Cats.”

The union represents more than 15,000 hospitality and food service workers in the Chicago area.