Civil Disobedience on Century Boulevard

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

Civil Disobedience on
Century Boulevard
The Tidings - October 6, 2006
By R. W. Dellinger

Seven state senators and assembly members, two city councilmen, a San Fernando Valley mayor, a radio host and numerous labor leaders were among the 300-plus individuals arrested Sept. 28 for protesting the job conditions for mostly immigrant workers who staff the high-rise hotels near Los Angeles International Airport.

"Brothers and sisters, we are going to make history today," Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, told more than 2,000 demonstrators during a late afternoon rally. "We are going to march and hundreds of us are going to be arrested.

"We are willing to do this because we can't stand by quietly while immigrant workers are exploited," Durazo said. "We can't stand by when they get poverty wages. We want to make sure that they get health insurance and safe working conditions. All human beings deserve those working conditions."

From a Ford flatbed truck, outfitted with speakers, the veteran labor organizer said there was a "secret" the hotels didn't want the world to know. Behind the luxurious rooms, buffet bars and banquet halls stood stark poverty in Inglewood, Lennox and Hawthorne, nearby communities where most workers lived. She pointed out that 40 percent of the children of these low-wage hourly laborers struggle to survive below the poverty line.

"So all of us today, as we march," said Durazo, "we call upon these hotels, we call upon this industry, to provide living wages and to treat workers with respect, to treat immigrants like all human beings, to provide health care so that no child of these workers goes without medical care when they need it.

"Immigrant workers have been living in fear for far too long. They've been living in the shadows for far too long. But today they are stepping out of the shadows, and they are going to show courage alongside of elected officials and clergy and students and union leaders and everyone in our community to send the same message to these hotels."

Then the labor leader urged the crowd to march and make history.

"Se puede? (Can you do it?)" she asked.

"Si, se puede!" (Yes, we can do it) the crowd called out again and again, until it became a marching chant.

After a brisk 15-minute walk, they came to the Los Angeles Airport Hilton, where about 170 people, who had planned to be arrested, sat down in long rows in the middle of Century Boulevard. A second group continued east to the Westin Hotel, where they, too, sat down on the asphalt.

Hundreds of sidewalk supporters at both places cheered the demonstrators on as they were encircled by Los Angeles Police officers and one at a time handcuffed before being led to waiting buses to be transported to three processing centers, where those arrested spent 10 to 15 hours being processed before they were released.

The Los Angeles Times pointed out that the whole event, which shut down Century Boulevard for three hours, had an "only-in-Los-Angeles" flavor to it. The planned march and sit-ins, in fact, were more like a carefully choreographed outdoor dance than a bloody street demonstration from the '60s. The LAPD reported, however, that it was one of the largest acts of civil disobedience --- in terms of arrests --- in the city's history.

One of those arrested was Joan Harper, 56, program consultant for the archdiocese's Office of Justice and Peace. After being detained in front of the LAX Airport Hilton, she was bused to the Van Nuys Police Station, where she was fingerprinted and photographed.

The booking process took 12 hours, from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m., when she was released. While incarcerated, she was able to sleep a couple hours in a bunk bed and was served baloney sandwiches and juice for a late supper and breakfast.

The Sept. 28 action was Harper's first act of civil disobedience, after years of learning, studying and teaching Catholic social action. And for the last 12 months, she's been supporting workers at the nonunion Glendale Hilton, which, like the LAX Hilton, is not actually owned by the Hilton hotel chain.

"I'm looking at workers, and they have a whole lot more to lose than I do," she explained. "So I said it's just time --- time to step up to the plate and take the next step and really show that I'm supporting workers in a very tangible way.

"It took me a while," she admitted. "It wasn't an easy decision. But it did finally dawn on me that I just had to do this."

Others arrested included state senators Richard Alarcon and Gil Cedillo; assembly members Judy Chu, Paul Koretz and Cindy Montanez; assembly members-elect Kevin De Leon and Julia Brownley; Los Angles City Council members Ed Reyes and Jose Huizar; and labor leader Durazo.

Members of the local Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, Service Employees International Union and other unions also participated and were arrested.

Claretian Father Richard Estrada, associate pastor of La Placita Church, marched down Century Boulevard but didn't participate in either sit-in. The priest, however, has been active --- and arrested --- on numerous occasions over the years for supporting immigrants' rights and other social justice causes.

"I'm here today to be part of history --- almost 400 people getting arrested going peacefully because for what they believe," he told The Tidings. "I mean, for me this is an act of faith and sacrifice, showing that people who have power over peoples' lives, especially the immigrant and workers, they have to listen to us.

"So I'm here because I've been arrested many times," he added. "I can't be arrested anymore. But I'm so happy that so many of our clergy brothers and sisters are here walking with the workers."