Hospitality workers threatening to strike at two Hyatt hotels on the Monterey Peninsula explain their dispute in terms of the current high cost of living and the level of their pay compared to hospitality workers elsewhere. But to analysts like Stefan Mason, a longtime mediator of labor-management disputes in California, the roots of the current impasse originate further back in history.

Up until about 20 years ago, Stefan explains, most American workers expected their employers to pick up the tab for their health insurance benefits. That changed dramatically in the early 1980s, when health care costs began to spike upwards, and President Ronald Reagan helped launch a new era in which the power of unions to negotiate benefits like health care dwindled.

Today, workers largely accept that they must pay for a portion of their health insurance coverage—if they get any at all. But it is still a sticking point nationwide. “That’s now the battle,” says Mason.

And so it is for hospitality workers in Monterey. The biggest question for 485 workers at the Hyatt Regency Monterey and Park Hyatt in Carmel Highlands is health insurance and who will pay for it. A current proposal would require workers to pay $50 to $100 a month, perhaps more.

Julius de Vera, president of Unite Here Local 483, which represents the workers, says requiring workers who earn just above minimum wage to pay $100 a month would be “devastating.”

“We cannot accept this,” de Vera says. “That’s the strike issue and we’re in fact still miles apart.” On Aug. 23, workers voted to empower a committee to authorize a strike at a moment’s notice.

On Thursday, Aug. 31, Unite Here will hold a march organizers hope will be the largest labor march in Monterey history. De Vera says they expect participation from other local union members like SEIU, Teamsters and teachers’ unions.

Meanwhile, general managers for the two Hyatts are optimistic that a strike can be averted, even as they refuse to talk about negotiation details. “Our employees are our most important asset and we don’t want a strike,” said Mark Bastis, general manager at the Hyatt Regency Monterey. “We want a fair, mutual agreement, and there’s no reason at this point in time to believe that that won’t happen.”

Norbert Relecker, general manager of the Park Hyatt, echoed the same sentiment, while adding that replacement workers will be hired if a strike does occur.

There seems to be at least one more chance to avoid a strike. On Sept. 5, labor leaders and Hyatt officials will meet at the negotiating table.