Streeterville hotel drops Cambria name amid $300K strike

A Streeterville hotel has lost its affiliation to the Cambria brand amid a 16-month strike that’s cost it a boatload of business.

The former Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile, located at 166 East Superior Street, is now known as Hotel One Sixty-Six, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

A group of about 30 Cambria workers has been on strike since September 2018, when employees at about two dozen other hotels across the city also participated in a demand for higher pay and year-round health coverage. All of the others returned to work long ago after concessions were made.

Unite Here Local 1 spokesman Elliott Mallen told the Sun-Times that the union, which organized the strike, that he doesn’t know why the Cambria name was removed, but he speculates it’s related to lost business and declining standards as a result of the strike.

The union estimated in July, almost a year after the strike began, that the strike had cost the hotel $300,000 in bookings.

The main issue fueling the ongoing strike is the hotel’s demand for an increase in housekeepers’ daily quota of room responsibilities from 13 to 15, according to Mallen.

The hotel is operated by Fillmore Hospitality and owned by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. The Cambria brand is part of Choice Hotels International. [Sun-Times] — Brianna Kelly