ASU students and faculty have teamed with a labor union to convince the University to participate in a boycott of The Phoenician resort in Phoenix.
The proposed boycott is part of a larger campaign by labor union Unite Here to put pressure on the nation's five largest hotel chains to raise safety standards and to get hotels to back off of taking health benefits away from workers.
The Phoenician, owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., is being targeted because of Starwood's attempts to cut health benefits from worker contracts at one of its hotels in San Francisco, said Jodeen Olguin-Tayler, union organizer for Unite Here.
"By unions [hotel cleaning and laundry service] is considered to be the sweatshop of the service industry," she said.
Hotel cleaning and laundry staffs are some of the lowest paid with some of the highest injury rates from the cleaning supplies they use, Olguin-Tayler said.
Starwood officials could not be reached for comment.
The group is working to pass resolutions through the Academic Senate and the Undergraduate Student Government to formally request the University's attention to the matter. A resolution asking University officials to meet with the group to discuss its concerns was already passed by the Graduate and Professional Student Association.
The Sun Angel Foundation, one of the ASU organizations being targeted by union supporters, has held an annual football awards banquet at the resort for several years that costs more than $50,000, according to Intercollegiate Athletics Director John Davis.
Davis said he plans to verify the group's allegations against Starwood when he meets with the resort to discuss contracts.
"We're going to meet with The Phoenician and find out what's going on before we make a decision," he said.
Beyond the football awards banquet, ASU's spending at The Phoenician is relatively low.
John Riley, director of Purchasing and Business Services at ASU, said spending at the resort totals $7,360.84 over the last several years, much of which was funded by outside groups. The University has not spent anything at the resort since Jan. 1, 2004.
The union has had some success in encouraging Valley businesses and organizations to boycott The Phoenician, Olguin-Tayler said.
But she added she could not disclose which organizations or even how many have backed out of their contracts with The Phoenician because of a non-disclosure agreement.
Doctoral candidate in justice studies Louis Fernandez said he joined the boycott effort because he has family members who have worked in hotel cleaning and laundry, and he feels a responsibility to call attention to the problem.
"It's important to not make a distinction between here and there," Fernandez said. "People are people."
Reach the reporter at elias.arnold@asu.edu.
