Hotel room attendants tell their stories

he occasion was a Jan. 17 hearing to help build public awareness of the impact on the lives and health of hundreds of room attendants — mostly women, many immigrants — as area hotels compete to make their guest rooms more and more elaborate.

Present to hear the workers’ stories were religious and community leaders from the Interfaith Council on Religion, Race, Economic and Social Justice.

An hour-by-hour account of a room attendant’s day — cleaning 16 rooms, all with double beds, many of them “check-outs” — was given by Anamaria Rodriguez, who came from Mexico two decades ago and now is married with four young children. Rodriguez spoke of stripping and remaking beds with ever-heavier mattresses, more complicated coverings and more numerous pillows; polishing the bathroom, the furniture and the mirrors spotless; and much more.

At the end of the day, she said, “I am tired, sore and worried about how I still have to pick up my kids, go home, give them all baths and help them with their homework, and fix dinner.”

“By Friday,” said Divina Roe, originally from the Philippines, “I had the worst pain in my back. That night I felt very weak and tired.” Scheduled to work on a Saturday, Roe said, she had to call in sick. “When I get home from work and I’ve cooked the dinner, I want to lie down and rest. But my daughter wants to play. She says, ‘Mommy, wake up, wake up!’ I feel bad that the most time I have with her is when I get home from work, but I need to rest and get ready for work the next day.”

Her words were echoed after the hearing by Raquel Alvarez, a former room attendant now working with Unite Here Local 19, to which most area hotel room cleaners belong. When she was pregnant with her now 2-year-old daughter, “it was very difficult to finish my rooms,” she said. “When my daughter was born, I couldn’t even hold her bottle. I was always tired, in pain, taking medicine, and didn’t want to play with her.”

Research done by the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley, presented by Alicia Salvatore, confirmed their accounts. Among the findings: room attendants have a 75 percent greater chance of occupational injury than other hotel workers.

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