By: Housekeeping Manager
Mayor Horvath pushes the Hotel Workers Ordinance in front of the disused Standard Hotel
Editor’s Note: The Hotel Workers Ordinance introduced by Mayor Horvath and Councilor Shyne is due to be presented to the City Council on July 19. The hotly contested issue would free the hotel if it joined the Union and could have a devastating impact on hotel operations in West Hollywood. WEHOville is happy to present various points of view on this regulation to the public. We respect this employee’s right to privacy and are providing this comment for educational purposes only.
I’m the housekeeping manager in a hotel in West Hollywood.
I’ve worked in housekeeping my entire career, from maid to manager. My team, consisting of fantastic ladies and gentlemen, who, like me, are mostly minorities, is really like family. I know their children, their birthdays, and I am so grateful that they welcome me into their lives. Please note that I am writing this article anonymously because I fear the retaliation I have seen in other hotels for speaking up about Unite Here, the hotel union. They harass people who disagree with them through phone calls and text messages, and then organize gatherings in hotels to intimidate us. I don’t want this for myself or my team, so I asked to have my name removed from this article for protection.
You should know that my hotel is working so hard to hire staff so that I can have more people cleaning the rooms as luckily we have seen our business grow strong again. In my twenty years, I’ve never seen it so bad to find people to work. We publish the positions, but nobody applies. So I don’t understand why West Hollywood City Council thinks it’s a good thing to pass this hotel regulation that would result in having to find twice as many people to clean when I can’t find any people already. Your proposal would impose very strict rules on the hotels where I could only clean half of the rooms that they normally clean. If we can’t clean rooms, we can’t sell rooms – it’s that simple. I know the city makes money on hotel taxes – why would they want us to sell fewer rooms?
Another reason this new law would be bad is because it harms workers. How? Because we couldn’t afford overtime and they would lose tips. You should know that the overtime is an extra hour or two a day that we offer the team if they want to make extra money – we don’t force anyone to work more than their scheduled times. They like the extra hours because they are paid an hour and a half and I know the extra money is important to their families. One of my ladies said that by working overtime over the past month, she was able to afford new shoes for her child to play football with. Another thing that will hurt us is that by reducing the number of rooms, my team will not be able to tip the same amount that people leave in the rooms. I don’t think this council knows about these things, so why don’t they ask us?
When I read more information about the regulation, it also said that it was supposed to protect us. But we’re already doing all the training they list as new things. We have the panic buttons, we do sexual harassment training every year, and I train in the proper use of chemicals and even show proper cleaning so that injuries can be avoided. We also learn about human trafficking every year and how to report anything that looks suspicious. I am proud that we have the education and I can tell you that we make sure our team is healthy and strong. In fact, I do stretches and other exercises with the team every morning! So I’m confused why the council says these are new safeguards when we are already doing all safeguards and more. Also, you should know that state laws and Cal OSHA already dictate many of the things in the ordinance – so why do we need a city law to repeat this?
If the Council is really going to help us, it should figure out how to help us with things we need, like more workers, better transportation, and more people to visit and spend with us. My entire team commutes from an hour away, so transportation assistance would be really appreciated – maybe they could pay our bus fares? We are also worried about homelessness – we don’t always feel safe here on the streets. I know the homeless need more help – why isn’t the city doing more for them? Another thing I’ve been thinking about is that by creating twice as many people to clean the same number of rooms, it will double the number of motorists and parking lot drivers. Parking is already tough, and traffic now feels like it did before the pandemic – why does the council want to make it worse?
Please understand that I do not want to complain. I am happy to be here and to work here. But I wish this advice would stop and think about what they are doing. I know our hotels are safe and good places to work – it is my job as a manager to make sure this is true and I am proud to say that my team is happy. It’s not always perfect, but we always try our best. If that weren’t true, wouldn’t we find out more on the news or from the police? Wouldn’t there be more injuries and people trying to sue the hotels? I think if this were a real problem you would already know. I hear the union mostly talking about the Standard Hotel as the reason for this, but this hotel has closed – like so many businesses last year. Will the council legislate for any deal closed like the standard? I feel sorry for all the workers who lost their jobs, but I know every hotel hires so why don’t they apply and go back to work? That really doesn’t make sense to me – does it make sense to you?
