In downtown San Francisco it sounds like one of the city's famous parades is happening -- but the whistles, drumbeats and chanting voices are anything but a tourist draw as a hotel strike and lockout continues.

New Yorker Christine Gorman said the ruckus woke her up at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins hotel around 6 a.m. Sunday when housekeepers, cooks, servers, bellmen, phone operators, dishwashers and others gathered for the fifth day to protest stalled contract negotiations.

Union leaders say the sticking points are the length of the contract, wages and a proposed increase in health care costs for employees.

According to an estimate given by Linda Knighten, a cook at the Omni San Francisco Hotel on California Street and a member of the union negotiating team, the strike "could be indefinite, but that's OK because we'll be out here picketing and making noise," she said.

The lockout is the latest salvo in a battle between the union, UNITE HERE Local 2, and the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group, which represents 14 hotels.

After working without a contract for six weeks, about 1,400 union workers on Wednesday began a planned two-week strike against four hotels: the Argent, Hilton, Crowne Plaza and Mark Hopkins.

Hotels hit back Friday by locking out an additional 2,600 employees from the 10 others in the negotiating group: the Fairmont, Four Seasons, Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency, three Holiday Inns, the Palace Hotel, Omni and Westin St. Francis.