Still working with limited pay and unlimited hours, employees at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel held a 48-hour fast in their second public attempt to demand union rights.
With the help of Local 631, a union that supports over 200 hospitality laborers in Arizona, the workers had planned a protest on June 24 to reveal their workplace conditions to the public.
Now, still without any response from the hotel’s management, employees organized a fast in which they sat in front of the hotel and refused to eat for two days.
Rachel Sulkes, the president of Local 631, said their efforts are in hopes of reaching out to pensioners in Ohio who invest their money into the hotel through a union pension fund.
“We are trying to reach out to those officials to let them know on whose back that money is being made,” she said.
Sulkes said she stands by the Mission Palms workers because they should have a right to earn better pay for the work they do.
“The standards, comparatively, are much lower here for hotel workers,” Sulkes said. “I just think that generally, as an economy, we do better when people can afford things like healthcare and other necessities.”
By spending time with the workers to learn about their histories, Sulkes said she has been able to realize the treatment that these workers deserve.
“The stories they have about where they have come from to this country, often fleeing bad situations — they’re very courageous,” she said. “And to get to spend these couple days with them and really encourage them through what really is a spiritual experience is something that I will remember for the rest of my life.”
Alicia Morales, a Mission Palms worker of eight years and a participant in the strike, said her manager will not give her a raise.
“I’m on strike because we need to be heard,” Morales said. “We have tried a couple times to talk to the general manager and he won’t listen…I’m a single mother and I have four children. I make very little money.”
Morales said she and her co-workers are also overworked: Mission Palm employees must each clean around 16-17 rooms in eight hours, leaving approximately 20 minutes per room.
The workers are pressured to finish cleaning rooms faster than they are physically able, Morales said.
“As you’re working, they will come behind you,” she said. “And they’ll say, ‘Are you done with the rooms? We need the rooms. Hurry up and finish the rooms,’ because, of course, they want to sell them. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Maria Madrid, another Mission Palms employee, said the pressure makes the workers frantic on the job.
“In the middle of the day, you get really desperate because you’re trying to finish,” she said. “You rush and think, ‘I got to finish, I got to finish.’”
Madrid recently got a total knee replacement because she often works on her knees. She said the hotel did not cite it as a workplace injury and she had to pay for the procedure out of pocket.
Madrid has worked for Mission Palms for 10 years and makes $10.20 an hour.
Arizona Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe also participated in the fast because he said the Local 631 union’s energy inspired him to be involved.
“There’s a lot potential here,” he said. “I have easily been asked to write a letter (for other labor issues) where people say, ‘Just sign your name to this and it’ll mean something.’ I’m happy to help in that way, but these workers have so much energy. They have a lot more vision than just signing a letter.”
Mendez said he believes the workers feel more secure now that they can stand together for a cause.
“Everything we’re doing is not for the hotel management; it’s for the workers,” he said. “This is a big solidarity action in that none of them feel like they’re by themselves and they’ve built this huge community inside their workplace. They feel stronger.”
Reach the reporter at aplante@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @aimeenplante
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