Striking Seattle hotel workers seek jobless benefits under new law

The latest: Hotel workers at the Hilton-owned Embassy Suites in Pioneer Square have applied for the benefits and expect to start receiving them next week, their union, Unite Here Local 8, tells Axios.

• Workers there have been on strike since mid-June.

What they're saying: Access to unemployment benefits can make it easier for workers to hold out for a better contract, Aspen Desmarais, a bartender at the hotel's Zephyr restaurant, told the Washington State Standard.

• "It does allow people to go on strike for longer and be better off financially in order to get the contracts that they want signed," Desmarais told the Standard.

By the numbers: Nearly 140 striking workers received state unemployment benefits during the law's first six months, totaling almost $506,000, the Standard reports.