October 1, 1999

(EDITOR'S NOTE: They may work out of sight, but they are determined to make themselves visible. Hotel room cleaners in San Francisco — where tourism is the number one industry — are prepared to strike if employers do not reduce the daily load.)

By Consuelo Barrera
PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

SAN FRANCISCO — As I sit through session after session of our contract negotiations, I become more and more certain that we room cleaners are going to win a change. Union hotels will drop a room from our quota — it's going to cost them, but they'll do it.

I know this because we just will not go on working the way we have been. We are getting hurt. Some of us need surgery.

And we will win because we are strong. Those of us on the negotiating committee know how to fight. And a majority of the 8,000 rank-and-file members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 2 voted to strike.

We'll be on the picket line even if we have only beans to eat. I've got the beans ready. The picket signs and blue and yellow flags are ready, too.

We have different ways of fighting. My lieutenant, Veneranda Acosta, also cleans rooms. She's even shorter than I am, and they call me a flea.

The two of us work together to resolve our coworkers' problems. Veneranda investigates the details — after 20 years on the job she even knows how managers should work. I'm the punch.

Not all our members have the strength to fight. Managers step on the weaker ones — in my 22 years at the Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf I've never let them do that to me. I'm the kind who does civil disobedience with my union — on Labor Day, 83 of our members were arrested along with 64 supporters for blocking traffic in front of the Saint Francis Hotel to protest working conditions in hotels. Ever since I was a teenager in El Salvador I've liked action.

I'm not afraid of managers because I know that without these tiny hands of mine, they don't eat, the guests can't rest, no other department in my hotel can work. And the managers remember the money they lost in the city-wide strike of 1980.

When we struck in 1980, the work wasn't as hard as it is now. Back then, we cleaned 16 rooms, all with two double beds. We had to deal with 9 towels, 6 bed sheets, 4 envelopes, 2 postcards, a bar of soap and shampoo. Our supervisors helped — when we came in to work, our supplies were ready.

Now we do 15 rooms, but we have much less time for each room. You see, as competition got stiffer, the hotels kept piling on more things for us to do.

Now, each room has 12 pillows, 12 towels, lotions, a toothbrush, mouthwash, shaving cream, a bathrobe, an iron and coffee pots. Sometimes we get rollaway beds and cribs.

We help the supervisors now — we go to the computer to report that room is ready. We handle our own supplies. We check the lights, carpets, vanity sets and bathroom equipment to see if any replacements are needed.

The average housekeeper is about 40. I'm old at 57, but there are many older than me cleaning rooms. In order to clean our rooms on time, us old ones don't eat lunch or take breaks. One co-worker is 68. She is Chinese, and gets up at 5 a.m. to get to work on time. She can barely finish her rooms by 5pm.

I weigh 105 pounds. The linen cart I push, with all those supplies, weighs 200 pounds. With my other hand I carry the bucket with Windex bottles. We rush and push the carts over heavy carpets — it's very stressful. The stress often leads to accidents. Many of my coworkers have tendinitis. They complain about pain in the hands, the wrists, the knees, especially the knees, and the hips, the shoulders, the arms. Our backs ache at night. One of my Filipina coworkers says at night she aches so much she doesn't want her husband touching her.

Me, I ache from anger.

I don't want my 22-year-old daughter to know. I raised her on my own, and I'm supposed to be strong, but I have a constant pain running down my spine. My fingers are twisted and my hands ache from pulling the sheets so tightly.

Those sheets need to be tight. This is my profession. Not everyone can clean a room well. I like finishing a room, then opening the door and seeing a job well done. That's satisfying.

At the end of the day, I think about the Chinese lady who can barely finish her rooms. When the time comes, if the managers refuse to lighten our load, I'll walk her out of the hotel and let her know it's time for us to strike.

(Consuelo Barrera is a member of the negotiating committee of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 2 and has been a room cleaner for more than 20 years.)

Return to Frontpage