Danny Glover Joins Hotel Workers Campaign

Worker Profiles

For over 20 years, Isabel “Segunda” Brentner has worked at the LAX Hilton, keeping her focus on her family and her job. “My priorities [were] to help my family,” says Brentner, who, along with raising her own children, cared for both her father and grandmother when they were ill. More

Enedina Alvarez, a 54-year-old single parent, says she must be both mother and father to her teenage children. Yet, with two jobs, she has barely enough money to house, feed and clothe them—and precious little time to spend with them. Although she receives health insurance through her job, she cannot afford to insure her children. Alvarez says, “I pray to God that my kids do not get sick because I cannot pay the medical bills.” More

Who Are Hotel Housekeepers?*

Nearly all hotel housekeepers are women. The majority are women of color and immigrants.

There are 1.3 million hotel workers in the U.S. and 280,000 in Canada, of whom approximately one quarter are housekeepers.

Hotel Housekeeper Work Is Dangerous Work

Hotel workers have a 40% higher injury rate (5.9%) than workers in the service sector (4.2%).

According to a recent study of company records covering thousands of employee injuries, hotel housekeepers face an injury rate of 10.4%, almost double the injury rate for non-housekeepers (5.6%).

Hotel housekeeper injuries are debilitating. Back injuries, housemaids' knee (bursitis), and shoulder pain can lead to permanent disability.

*UNITE HERE

Why We Need A

"PLAN FOR A
NEW CENTURY"

A new white paper calls on the city of Los Angeles and industry leaders to invest in the Century Corridor and its workforce. A Plan for a New Century will benefit workers, communities, hotels and the entire city. More

Danny Glover Joins Hotel Workers Campaign
Los Angeles Wave - February 15, 2006
By Olu Alemoru

Actor and labor activist Danny Glover has added his voice in efforts to improve the lives of hotel workers around Los Angeles airport who suffer some of the worst poverty rates in the state.

Glover and former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, Senator John Edwards, are visiting the nearby LAX community of Lennox today as part of a national campaign to empower tens of thousands of hospitality workers in cities across North America.

The two men will then be given a short walking tour by community leaders and then will got to the home of a Century Boulevard hotel worker where they hear about conditions in the hotels and the impact on their families and communities.

The four city tour, which began in San Francisco on FEB. 15, moves to Chicago tomorrow and ends in Boston on FEB. 18, has attracted a coalition of local and national politicians, labor unions, hundreds of hotel workers, religious leaders, community activists and entertainment figures.

“I know how hard you work, how heavy those linen carts are, how tired you are at the end of the day,” said Glover.

“And also the pride you take in your work, the effort you make to make others comfortable - to make me comfortable when I am guest at your hotels. I am with you, all the way and I will stand side by side with you until we have won better standards for hotel workers.”

Here in L.A. the campaign has been dubbed “A Plan for a New Century”, as supporters not only fight for better wages and living conditions but have called on the hotel industry along Century Boulevard to join them in a major initiative to create better jobs and a stronger tourism market near the airport.

The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, as they are known, recently held protests outside three Century Blvd. Hotels - the Four Points Sheraton LAX, the LAX Hilton and LAX Westin - to highlight their demands.

A petition, which is expected to gather thousands of signatures in the coming weeks, was also circulated and will be delivered to Los Angeles City Council officials, who will be asked to consider a public policy proposal to address conditions in the Century Corridor.

“These men and women really are the face of hospitality in L.A.,” said Los Angeles Councilmember, Janice Hahn.

“This is the first impression that many people who come to the city for the first time really get to see. So we want to make sure it’s a good first impression and you make that when people are happy, healthy, have good benefits and are able to take care of their families.”

The Alliance also released a new study which notes that Century hotel workers earn far less than their counterparts in the rest of L.A. County, and that the nearby communities of Lennox, Inglewood and Hawthorne, suffer high rates of poverty, crime and overcrowding.

One in four residents in areas live below the federal poverty line, a measure of extreme poverty, while more than 40 percent of children come from poor households.

“Me and my colleagues work very hard but we are not paid a living wage,” said Darian Judeh, a front desk clerk at the Hilton LAX.

“The working conditions are also very hard. Sometimes we are very understaffed. There could be a huge line and there’s only one or two us and the managers just sit in the back.”

He added: “When we complain they think of us as a threat and starting writing us up and try to let us go. They just want us to work, stay quiet and take the abuse.”

However, in response hoteliers have accused the union of posturing ahead of the hotel workers labor contract renewal next year.

Harris Chan, the newly installed General Manager of the Westin said that while his hotel is not unionized there wages are some of the highest on the Century Corridor. Chan added that he is now working closely with employees to try and improve pay “as long as it’s what the market will bear.”

“There’s been a lot of misinformation and outright misrepresentations made,” said James O. Abrams, President & CEO of the California Hotel & Lodging Association.

“You will find some no-union LAX hotels paying the highest wages and good healthcare benefits but because they are not unionized they are singled out and vilified. They may call this a new coalition but I think it’s strictly a union organizing campaign at heart.”