Do Hotels Take Advantage of Spanish Speaking Workers?
Do big hotel chains take advantage of non-English speaking workers? You bet your clean towel they do.
I have traveled around the country and stayed at a lot of hotels. (I was a Greyhound Bus Driver for years.)
I noticed that when I was staying at big chain hotels, the housekeepers were most always from a Spanish-speaking country. They didn’t know too much English except for the basics. Nothing conversational. While staying at these big chain hotels I would usually start a conversation with the housekeepers. I do speak Spanish.
Spanish Hotel Maids
So how do these big hotel chains actually take advantage of non-English speaking hotel workers? Hotels are able to keep pay low for non-English because most of these workers are scared that they will lose their jobs. They won’t complain or ask thier superiors for an increase in pay. These are minimum wage workers. They work jobs that a lot of people won’t don’t want. But the reason for a hotel to hire a non-English speaker is that they won’t cause any trouble. They will come to work and do their job without questioning anything. Also, a lot of these housekeepers come from countries where they were making less than a dollar a day. To make minimum wage in this country is a blessing for most of them. But from the information that I have gathered they are being taken advantage of.
I was even told by one of these hotel workers that if they got an application from an English speaking average Jane, they would rip up the application. Why? The housekeepers needed the hours to work. Hiring another worker may spread the work thin. The other reason was that they didn’t want someone to work their that didn’t understand their language.
I tend to believe there is a reason these hotels hire these hardworking people…to keep costs low. I’m all for capitalism , but to take advantage of people that work hard is a shame.
Don’t forget to leaves these housekeepers a tip.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Labor Takes on the Money Power of Hotel Chains Across 15 Cities (alternet.org)
- Hotel workers to protest unfair treatment with rally on Sunset Boulevard (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Popularity: 1% [?]
facebook comments:
Since 1988, I have worked primarily with Spanish-speaking housekeepers and nannies. In those 20 years, I have seen them learn English, get GED degrees, send their own children to college, buy homes and become an integral part of our economy and labor force. They are hard workers and willing to do whatever it takes to support their families. They are learning their rights under all Labor Codes. Hotel chains beware…the days of abusing legal immigrants (whether they speak GOOD English or not) is slowing coming to an end.