Jeffrey Barner has opened doors for guests at Baltimore’s Hilton Inner Harbor for the past 16 years — since the hotel opened after the city spent millions to finance its design and construction.

It’s become increasingly hard for the bellman to offer a warm greeting, he said, when others doing the same job in nearby cities make at least $10 more per hour than he does.

Dozens of the hotel’s roughly 200 unionized workers gathered Friday and voted not to extend their contract with the city-owned Hilton as they push for wage increases and better working conditions. A spokesperson with the Unite Here Local 7 Baltimore chapter said they couldn’t disclose a number for voter turnout, but said the majority of those who showed up are committed to fighting for a $20-an-hour minimum wage.

Hilton’s union contract ended in February but was extended through this summer. With the vote Friday to end the contract, that extension will expire Aug. 15. The move clears a path for union members at the downtown hotel to potentially strike in the coming weeks.

The vote comes as thousands of workers across the country began strike authorization votes this month at Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and other hotels. They are demanding higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era staffing cuts.

Though Baltimore has invested money into the hospitality industry as a way to revitalize the local economy, workers say they have been historically underpaid compared to counterparts in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Tracy Lingo, president of the Unite Here Local 7 Baltimore chapter, said the lowest-paid workers at the 757-room Hilton — in positions such as housekeepers, dishwashers and banquet staff — make $16.20 an hour. Hotel workers in the District recently bargained for earnings of $33 an hour by the end of their five-year contract. In Philadelphia, about two hours away from Baltimore, workers make about $23 an hour.

“There’s nobody that’s really looking out for our welfare. And that’s problematic because a lot of hotel owners and executive staff are out of touch with the reality of our work,” Barner said. “We are the ones that are putting forth the effort to keep the doors open.”

Baltimore’s Hilton, located on West Pratt Street next to the Convention Center, has struggled financially since the start of the pandemic, and the city has been stuck with annual payments to help cover its debt after it borrowed more than $300 million by selling bonds to construct the hotel. In 2023, the city earmarked $7 million for the hotel from its annual budget, in addition to $16 million the property had reportedly already received to help pay its debt.

Workers feel pinched by the Hilton’s demands for more work with fewer staff, Lingo said, adding that what the company proposes would leave workers farther behind. Given that hotel companies have shifted to a model in which they run properties for owners rather than own their real estate, the city’s role is significant, Lingo said.

“It’s the owner who has the most power,” she said, adding that the city pays Hilton management fees regardless of profit from the hotel.

Lisa Cole, a spokesperson with Hilton in the Americas, said negotiations with Baltimore’s Unite Here Local 7 have been successful in the past.

“Hilton has an established track record of successfully negotiating labor agreements with Unite Here Local 7 and is committed to negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable agreement that is beneficial to both our valued team members and to our hotels,” Cole said in a statement Monday.

The Baltimore Development Corp., a quasi-government entity overseeing economic development in the city, didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The Hilton is not the only hotel under contract negotiations in the city. At the Hyatt Regency, at 300 Light St., another 115 workers are also in bargaining talks, and workers joined a picket line there in July as they considered a strike.

The picket garnered support from council member Zeke Cohen, who’s expected to be the next City Council president. After helping hotel workers in his locale at the Marriott in Harbor East unionize last year, he said, he wants to support “the front faces of the city” in contract negotiations underway.

“When folks come to stay in Baltimore, it’s these workers that they come and see,” Cohen said. “These are some of the least-well-paid workers in the city of Baltimore, and some of them have to work two and even three jobs. And, to me, one job should be enough.”