Until the mid-1960s, only male waiters could work in local hotels organized by the Greater Boston Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union. At that time, fifty-seven women waitresses, who were members of an all-women’s union (Local 277) sought membership in the Local 34 union of the Greater Boston and Restaurant Workers’ Union to work at the Copley Plaza Hotel. When their request was denied, the women, backed by the Massachusetts Council Against Discrimination, took legal action. Their victory in June 1966 marked a significant milestone in the fight for gender equality in the workplace, allowing women to work as waitresses in local hotels alongside their male counterparts. As members of the current union, Local 26, women now have the right to equal employment and equal pay in such union hotels as the Fairmont Copley Plaza, and are represented on the executive board of the union.
After being managed by Sheraton Hotels in the 1960s, the hotel is now managed by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and is known as Fairmont Copley Plaza.
