Hotel Strike in Chicago Ends After 10 Years

Employees offer unconditional return to work

A 10-year strike at the Congress Plaza hotel in downtown Chicago—believed to be the longest hotel strike in the world –has ended. A attorney for the hotel said Unite Here Local 1, the union representing cleaning and maintenance workers, has offered an unconditional return to work as of midnight Wednesday.

The union confirmed Thursday morning that it is ending the strike.

"The decision to end the Congress strike was a hard one, but it is the right time for the union and the strikers to move on," Unite Here Local 1 President Henry Tamarin said in a statement. "The boycott has effectively and dramatically reduced the hotel's business. … There is no more to do there."