The sick humor of
management at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Santa Clara, Calif., was put
on display in late September during “Housekeeping Appreciation
Week.” To show its “appreciation” for the housekeeping staff,
the hotel displayed a collage of their faces, superimposed on
sexualized cartoon drawings.
Two of the workers,
Martha and Lorena Reyes, sisters who had worked at the hotel for six
and 24 years, respectively, reported feeling humiliated and
disrespected.
Lorena Reyes later
told Laura Clawson of Daily Kos Labor, “[T]he photos were
‘extremely humiliating and shameful for me,’ adding that she has
never worn a bikini, even at home.”
Martha Reyes,
noticing male coworkers joking over the display, tore down the images
of both her and her sister upon arriving at work.
When later a worker
who had put up the collage with a manager present urged Martha to
return the photos, saying they were company property, she refused.
It so happens that
Martha and Lorena are active members of the Hyatt Workers’
Organizing Committee, which has been fighting for better treatment of
Hyatt workers, including a fair process for choosing a union. UNITE
HERE Local 19 has called for a boycott of the hotel for refusing to
give an inch to these demands.
On Oct. 12, the day
an early morning picket was held at the hotel to publicize the
boycott, Lorena and Martha were called into the office separately and
told by the human resources director that the hotel was investigating
them for violations of the hotel break policy and suspending them.
Two days later, the sisters were fired for allegedly overstaying a
30-minute lunch break, thereby “stealing company time.”
Housekeeping workers at the Hyatt are restricted to the legal minimum of
an unpaid 30-minute break for lunch and a 10-minute paid break in the
morning and afternoon. The workers are required to clock in and out for
lunch. Not infrequently, the workload is such that a worker cannot take
her morning break and takes it after clocking out of her lunch break
instead. This has been common practice at the hotel, as management is
perfectly aware.
Suddenly, however,
management decided to single out the pro-union Reyes sisters.
It is ironic that
the Hyatt charged these hardworking employees with “stealing
company time.” In reality, for a combined total of 30 years, they
have provided untold hours of unpaid labor to the wealthy
capitalist owners. The value the Reyes sisters have produced by their
daily toil far exceeds the low pay they have received for their
physically demanding labor. It is such unpaid labor provided by all
hotel workers that accounts for the huge profits raked in by the
hotel-owning sector of the 1 percent.
On Nov. 18, a
delegation, led by the Rev. Deborah Simon of the Center for Spiritual
Enlightenment, composed of women leaders of the community, the Reyes
sisters and others met with General Manager Peter Rice to inform him
of a complaint to be filed on behalf of the fired workers with the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (A previous delegation had
met with Peter Rice immediately after the suspensions demanding
reinstatement. Another delegation met with a woman manager
immediately after the firing demanding the workers’ reinstatement,
again to no avail.)
During the most
recent meeting with Rice, strong statements were read by Rabbi
Melanie Aron, Congregation Shir Hadash; Esther Peralez-Dieckmann,
director, Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Policy; Stan Kiino,
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and national co-director, Pride
At Work; and Sabuhi Siddique, Ahmadiiyya Muslim Community.
The same day, the
ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) issued a press
release in support of the Reyes sisters, which stated, in part:
“The sexist and
degrading images displayed during ‘Housekeeping Appreciation Week’ …
is a clear example of why the Hyatt workers need a union: for the
right to be treated with respect, the right to collective bargaining,
to union representation, and to a contract that guarantees their
rights, without fear of unilateral and unwarranted discipline by the
company.
“Without a union
there is no redress for a worker unfairly treated.
“To charge
housekeeping workers with ‘stealing company time’ is a shameful and
thinly veiled tactic. Everyone knows that the job of cleaning rooms
is not like working on a production line where the work can stop and
start and breaks can be more easily regulated.
“Housekeeping
workers do not have another person to step in and relieve them of
their duties to take a break as happens in other workplaces.”
The press release
ended with the following demands:
-
Reinstate
Lorena and Martha with full back pay. -
Issue an
apology letter to all housekeeping employees for subjecting everyone
to suggestive and degrading photos. -
Create and
implement measures that will foster respect for women and all
employees at the Hyatt. -
Conduct
training to ensure that all employees are treated with respect at
the Hyatt.
Immediately
following the meeting of the delegation with Peter Rice, a picket of
the hotel again took place, accompanied by loud, non-stop chanting.
Joining the picket were hotel workers, including the Reyes sisters;
union and community members; ANSWER and Party for Socialism and
Liberation activists; and others. In all, some 100 joined the
spirited action.
ABC 7 News,
Spanish-language channel 14 and other news media covered the picket
and interviewed the Reyes sisters and their lawyer. An online
petition has, as of this writing, gathered nearly 1,600 signatures.
For more about the Hotel Workers Rising campaign to make Hyatt treat
its workers with the respect they deserve and to join the campaign on
behalf of the Reyes sisters, visit
www.hotelworkersrising.org/hyattdignity/
