Fighting Back
Workers, Communities Turn Up the Heat on LAX-Area Hotels
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| To symbolize the dangers they have endured, hotel housekeepers crafted a 40-foot “Quilt of Pain & Tears” over a 4-week period, writing their names, years in the hotel industry and injuries on color-coded patches. |
Hotel workers and their community supporters have increased pressure on the hotels near LAX as part of an ambitious two-year campaign to improve conditions for 3,500 hotel employees and their families.
Students from Loyola University, Animo High School and local religious congregations began a procession October 25 pushing injured hotel housekeepers in wheelchairs from the university campus to Century Boulevard where they joined over 400 housekeepers, clergy and community leaders to raise public awareness of the high risk of injuries for room attendants in L.A.’s booming hospitality industry.
On October 30, CalOSHA issued the first ever citation in the hotel industry to the LAX Hilton Hotel for violations of California’s new ergonomics standards, saying the hotel did not effectively implement procedures to investigate work-related injuries and illnesses or develop appropriate measures to prevent repetitive motion injuries among housekeepers.
“Not only are [housekeepers] being cheated out of a living wage, but they’re also at risk of injury every time they go to work,” said Katherine Spillar, Executive Vice President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, who was a speaker at the October 25 event. “We can’t turn a blind eye any longer.”
Hotels near LAX have enjoyed the highest occupancy rates in Los Angeles, yet many of their employees still live in poverty, earning 20% less than their counterparts in downtown L.A. The nearby communities of Lennox, Inglewood and Hawthorne, where a large number of these workers live, suffer high rates of poverty, crime and overcrowding.
To symbolize the dangers they have endured, hotel housekeepers crafted a 40-foot “Quilt of Pain & Tears” over a 4-week period, writing their names, years in the hotel industry and injuries on color-coded patches: rust for permanently disabled housekeepers; orange for those who suffer from chronic pain on the job; yellow for those who have filed injury reports with the government; and multi-color for those who have had surgeries. Black patches signify fatalities and miscarriages.
“When hotel guests see their rooms nice and clean, they have no idea that the housekeeper who did the work was probably injured,” said Rosa Balam, who worked in the Westin LAX Hotel for 14 years as a housekeeper and fell and suffered a miscarriage in 2005 while lifting an 80-pound bag of linen. She has been unable to work since and is awaiting five surgeries on her knees, arms and shoulder.
In response to repeated housekeeper injuries, LAX Hilton employees filed a complaint with CalOSHA in May citing repetitive work that includes pulling sheets off of beds, lifting 100-pound mattresses, stretching overhead to clean shower walls, and reaching down low to scrub toilets and tubs.
The October 25 pilgrimage is part of a region-wide campaign to improve the safety and working conditions of housekeepers, who, according to recent research, are more likely to be at higher risk for lower back injury than workers in occupations such as auto assembly and patient handling.
“Housekeepers work very hard to make hotel guests feel safe and comfortable, yet despite huge profits, the hotels don’t want to give these workers a living wage, and the respect they need to sustain and keep their families safe and comfortable,” said Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, who led the five-mile pilgrimage of clergy and students on October 25.
| Victory at Sheraton Gateway |
| Workers celebrated a victory at the Sheraton Gateway, which became the first LAX-area hotel to agree to a union contract in October. The contract includes pay increases, improved health care coverage, and hotel participation in a diversity task force, along with community and union leaders. The task force will work to increase outreach to potential job candidates in the African American community and review the application and hiring process at the hotels. |
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| Boycott the LAX Hilton |
 The LAX Hilton was recently cited by CalOSHA for failing to implement ergonomic standards and is also the target of a lawsuit for violating the provisions of the “Hotel Service Charge Reform Ordinance” passed by the L.A. City Council in 2006. The law was put in place to ensure that the Century Corridor’s waiters and banquet workers receive the tips they are owed. |
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