Labor Protest Targets Airport-Area Hotels

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

Labor Protest Targets
Airport-Area Hotels
Los Angeles Times - September 29, 2006
By Joe Mathews

About 300 people protesting the treatment of immigrant workers by hotels near Los Angeles International Airport were arrested Thursday night during two coordinated sit-ins in the middle of Century Boulevard east of the airport.

The arrests, which were planned in recent weeks with the cooperation of the Los Angeles Police Department, came after a short march of more than 2,000 people that closed Century Boulevard for three hours.

One group of about 170 people who had agreed in advance to be arrested sat down in front of the Hilton Los Angeles Airport just before 6 p.m. A smaller group sat down in front of the Westin Hotel to the east. In each spot, hundreds of marchers stood on the sidewalk, cheered, and chanted slogans such as "Sí Se Puede," "Boycott Hilton" and "No Justice, No Peace" along with the protesters in the street.

Those arrested had agreed in writing to be detained, and they offered no resistance as they were placed in plastic handcuffs and loaded onto buses for the ride to jail. Many were smiling as they were taken away.

Police, noting the number of arrests, called the event the largest civil disobedience in Los Angeles in a generation and one of the largest in the city's history. The protest saw more arrests than any labor action in 60 years.

"I am happy, as happy as I've ever been," said Daniel Briones, a cook at the Glendale Hilton, as he sat in the middle of the street and prepared to be arrested for the first time in his life. "I'm doing this for my colleagues in the hotels down here."

Hotel workers from the Century Boulevard corridor marched but did not take part in the sit-ins because of fears that they could be fired for being arrested in front of hotels where they work. They spoke about low wages. Housekeepers in area hotels make less than $11 an hour, and waiters in hotel restaurants make minimum wage plus tips.

The protest was part of a long-standing drive by Unite Here, which represents hotel workers, to unionize workers at 13 hotels in the Century corridor.

Among the arrested were several clergy members, college students bused in for the occasion, immigrant activists, leaders of many of the region's largest unions, three state legislators — Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley) and Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) — and two city councilmen — Ed Reyes and Jose Huizar.

Airport and hotel officials said the protest had a negligible effect. Harold Johnson, an LAX spokesman, said no flights were delayed and authorities had rerouted traffic so passengers could enter the airport.

A spokesman for Westin said the hotel received no complaints from customers. The LAX Hilton's statement criticized the union for the protest, adding that the hotel was proud of its treatment of workers.

It was a boisterous but peaceful scene, with an only-in-Los-Angeles flavor. Hundreds of marchers recorded the event with video and digital cameras; about two dozen people identified themselves as documentary filmmakers.

And in typical L.A. fashion, not everyone who pledged to come showed up; 400 people had pledged to be arrested.

Some travelers trying to reach the airport abandoned their cabs and walked with their suitcases up Century Boulevard.

Juan Samanigo, a flower importer from Ecuador, missed his flight to Miami, the first leg of a trip back home to Quito, because he could not return his rental car. He planned to catch a red-eye and return home a day late.

"Why don't they protest in the hotel or the hotel garage instead of in the street where it affects travelers?" he asked.

Ian Steven, 43, a British management consultant who lives in San Francisco, also missed his flight while trying to return a car. He expressed frustration with both sides. He had to buy a ticket on a new flight and said he would send the bill to the union. "And Hilton and Westin, I'm going to avoid them as a result."