Several dozen people -- most of them hotel workers -- were arrested Tuesday after staging a sit-in at the Hilton San Francisco during a rally and march by unionized hotel workers through the city.

Union officials said the march that started at Union Square and passed by three downtown hotels was an effort to pressure the hotels to sign a labor contract with workers, whose last contract expired in August.

"In the upcoming weeks, there will be more demonstrations, more protests and more action inside the hotels until they realize that their stalling is not going to dilute the determination to fight for a fair contract," said Lamoin Werlein-Jaén, vice president of Local 2, the hotel employees union.

Prior to the march, 37 people entered the lobby of the Hilton on O'Farrell Street and sat on the main steps, chanting and holding signs for more than an hour until they were arrested for trespassing.

The march, which police estimated at 400-500 people, ended at the Hilton as protesters chanted "Ready to fight? Damn right!" and shouted "Shame on you" at hotel guests who had to pass through a police line to enter the building.

The San Francisco Multi-Employer Group, the coalition of 14 hotels involved in the labor dispute, accused the union in a released statement of being more interested in disrupting business than negotiating.

"Today's unlawful, disruptive behavior at the Hilton San Francisco is highly regrettable, yet it is also indicative of the total disinterest of Local 2 leadership to engage in productive negotiations," the statement said.

Union President Mike Casey was one of those arrested Tuesday.

The labor dispute -- which included a two-week strike at four hotels and a 5 1/2-week lockout of workers at all 14 hotels last fall -- has not progressed since the union made three proposals to the hotels Feb. 14. All the employees are working.

The hotels rejected two of those proposals and a counterproposal on the third is in the works, said Cornell Fowler, spokesman for the Multi-Employer Group.

Workers at the march said they were seeing the effects of their street protests inside the hotels, which they admitted could hit their bottom line, too.

"But you have to break an egg if you want an omelet," said Kate Bennett, a food server who has worked at the St. Francis Hotel for 22 years. "You have to fight if you want to succeed, and this is for the future of our families."

Several issues are still outstanding between the union and the hotels, including wages, health care and length of the contract.

Leighton Peterson, a guest at the Hilton who was in San Francisco for a conference, said he was aware of the labor dispute because another convention he was to attend last fall had been moved to Atlanta in response to the strike and lockout.

"It was a paid room, and I didn't pay for it," he said. "Normally, I wouldn't stay here."