Fatima Amahmoud, a housekeeper at the Moxy hotel in downtown Boston, faces challenges in cleaning the up to 17 rooms assigned to her each shift. She often encounters difficult situations like finding days’ worth of dog fur in a room due to the decline in daily room cleaning requested by guests to cut labor costs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue has led to unmanageable workloads and a decline in income for unionized housekeepers, sparking a fight to restore daily room cleaning at major hotel chains.
Over 10,000 hotel workers represented by the UNITE HERE union went on strike in various cities demanding higher wages, service and staffing cuts reversal, and fair working conditions. The hotel industry, which employs mostly women of color and immigrants, continues to face chronic staffing shortages despite efforts to attract workers by increasing wages.
UNITE HERE’s recent success in southern California has inspired hope for improved conditions in other locations, as they strive to secure family-sustaining compensation for hospitality workers. The ongoing battle over daily room cleaning exemplifies the challenges faced by workers in an industry that has rebounded economically from the pandemic, but still struggles to provide fair wages and working conditions to its employees.
The issue of daily room cleaning is a point of contention between the union and hotel management, with the latter citing guest preferences, staffing shortages, and budget concerns as reasons for reducing services. Workers like Chandra Anderson at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor hope for better pay and working conditions to provide for their families. The fight for fair treatment and compensation for hotel workers continues amid the industry’s recovery from the pandemic.
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