Represented by UNITE HERE Local 11, workers at hotels in Southern California have been taking bold and necessary actions to secure a contract that addresses workers’ serious concerns: from receiving fairer wages that can actually allow workers to keep up with high costs of living, to mitigating the constant threat of sexual harassment and abuse workers in these hotels face every day, especially considering that the vast majority of hotel and hospitality workers are women, many of whom have to work on their own, isolated.  Thanks to our friend Glynndana Shevlin (Season 1, Episode 2), we were able to talk about all of this with Maria Isabel, a hotel maid, and Ada Tamayo, an organizer for UNITE HERE Local 11. The four of us sat down and had an important chat about the struggles hotel workers face in Anaheim and elsewhere. 

 

Additional links/info below...

• UNITE HERE Local 11 website, Twitter, and Facebook 
• Gabriel San Román, OC Weekly, "Hotel Wars: Lawsuits, Protests, and Raises Turn Up Heat in OC, LBC"
• Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "California Hotel Workers 'On the Brink' of Joining Wave of Strikes" 
• Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "'It Was Like Hell': California Hotel Workers Break Their Silence on Abuse"
• Beige Lucianao-Adams, LA Weekly, "California's Labor Resistance" 
• Jeong Park, The Orange County Register, "Anaheim Councilman Arrested in Civil Disobedience with Protesting Hotel Workers"
• Margot Roosevelt, The Orange County Register, "Orange County Portrait: Low Wages, Child Poverty, Costly Housing"
• Alex N. Press, Jacobin, "Sexual Harassment is Everybody's Problem"
• Shalayne Pulia, InStyle, "6 Women Making Sure Workplace Equality Isn't Just for the C-Suite"

 

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• Cordero, "Heart in Me"