Hotel workers fight sexist conditions

SANTA MONICA, CA, June 18– Nearly 100 hotel workers, community members, and clergy marched through the hotel district in Santa Monica, rallying in front of two hotels and City Hall. The focus of the struggle is to combat sexism in the workplace and improve conditions for the overworked, mostly female housekeeping staff. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members work in a church that is part of a coalition called Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, which is currently supporting the efforts of local hotel workers to unionize and improve working conditions.
 Their most recent struggle has been focused on combating sexist conditions in the workplace, especially the sexual harassment and assault perpertrated by  management and hotel guests. The workers and the union are pushing the City Council to pass an ordinance that would mandate that panic buttons be placed in all guest rooms; provide for humane workloads and job retention rights when hotel ownership changes; and begin necessary training for supervisors and staff on preventing human trafficking, domestic and sexual violence, and labor abuse.
At the rallies, there were the usual talks from Council members, but the most inspiring speeches were from the workers themselves. The women talked about their experiences with sexism on the job and how they have stayed strong and kept fighting because of the support they’ve received from fellow workers and the community.Their campaign started last fall with informational forums, where workers shared their stories. As nearby jurisdictions started passing panic button ordinances, the workers and the union began to craft their own housekeeper’s bill of rights. Then they circulated a petition to gather community support. At our church, we’ve been gathering signatures after services and making announcements from the pulpit.
Santa Monica hotels are not alone in the sexist and racist mistreatment of their workers. In Los Angeles, workers are organizing a union at the trendy Freehand Hotel, owned by multi-millionaire real estate developer Andrew Zobler. Workers have faced “speed-up” — the number of beds and bathrooms they must clean has doubled. As a result, they have no time for breaks or even quick water breaks.When they began to organize a union, management threatened to report them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and made antigay remarks comments to some union delegates.
Since the owners of hotels and every other business want to maximize profits, they seek to cut labor costs whenever possible. How this affects the workers—damaging their health, and their family lives—is of no concern to the owners. We support the collective action of workers to improve their conditions and defeat racist and sexist treatment. We also bring to the struggle the understanding that capitalism will always use racism and sexism to oppress the working class and extract maximum profits, but that workers have the power to overthrow that system with a communist revolution that allows the international working class to run society for the benefit of all.