Nearly 50 housekeepers from a half dozen Santa Monica hotels unveiled a “bill of rights” Thursday, which they demand their employers to follow.
They are seeking a higher wage, family health insurance, less rooms to clean, fewer check-out rooms to turnaround, more breaks, a longer lunch and non-toxic cleaning supplies.
Workers complained that after the economic downturn last year, their hours were slashed and many workers were let go. The workers who remained were forced to take on extra responsibilities and perform more work in less time, they say.
While occupancy rates have rebounded at many of Santa Monica’s hotels, staff levels have been kept low, union activists said. The result has been increased workloads and more on-the-job injuries, they claim.
Flora Guatemala, a housekeeper at Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, said she must clean 14 suites a day. If she can’t complete all the work on time, she is punished.
“We want the living wage to pass, we want more money,” she said through an interpreter, “and we want more respect at our jobs.”
Hotel managers were unavailable for comment.
More than 100 hotel employees, union organizers and clergy members gathered on the beach at Ocean Walk Way between Shutters on the Beach and Casa del Mar, two hotels with a non-unionized workforce.
Union organizers picked up the workers during their lunch break and drove them to the rally, where they were given a sack lunch. Within 30 minutes, activists had to whisk workers back to their jobs so they wouldn’t be late getting back to work.
And for the first time, black clergy members took an active role in the union’s effort to organize workers and support the city’s proposed living wage ordinance.
The living wage law would raise the minimum wage for low-income workers at coastal Santa Monica businesses that earn more than $5 million a year from $6.75 to $10.50 with health benefits or $12.25 without benefits. The wage for workers without benefits would increase to $13.00 after one year.
Bishop H.H. Brookins of the First A.M.E. Church, First A.M.E. Presiding Elder Lonnie C. Wormley and Rev. Ronald Williams of First A.M.E. by the Sea, on Michigan Avenue, lead the group in prayer.
“We shall not be divided,” Brookins said. “We need justice one more time, God. We need you to help your people receive the justice they deserve.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 13, 2002. Read the original PDF.