Protestors outside the downtown Long Beach Hilton this morning. Photo credit: UNITE HERE.
5:50am Reporting by Greggory Moore | The Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community is staging a rally today in front of the Hilton Long Beach to protest the April 20 firing of five employees who were participating in a state investigation into whether HEI Hotels & Resorts has been in violation of various tax and labor codes concerning the women’s employment at the Hilton Long Beach.
According to the Coalition and to Leigh Shelton of UNITE HERE Local 11, despite doing the same work as other housekeepers at the hotel, the “Hilton 5” were paid via an intermediary agency that provided them with lower wages, no benefits, erratic schedules, and inequitable job demands.
Shelton says that the women were fired just days after three of them complained about the unequal treatment they were receiving.
As reported previously by Long Beach Post, in late April the Hilton’s human resources director claimed the hotel had not recently fired any workers, since the five women had worked for a subcontractor, and that the hotel had simply ceased doing business with that agency. He also said the women have been offered the chance to apply with the hotel directly for similar positions.“Especially in hotels where there’s no union,” says Shelton, “managers can pretty much do whatever they want. That’s why we feel it’s so important to keep this in the public eye.”
According to a Coalition press release, picket lines in support of these “whistle-blowers” will take place beginning at 7 a.m. and last until 7 p.m., with a rally to take place at 11:45 a.m. Councilmember Steve Neal is said to be among those who will be in attendance.
“The community is demanding more from the HEI Hilton Long Beach,” said Annette Quintero, a Long Beach Good Jobs Coalition Steering Committee member. “This hotel cannot cheat the system, use these women for cheap labor, then throw them away when they speak up about unfair conditions.”
Also in attendance will be Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, who is slated to speak on behalf of the five women. “This is the first time any elected leader has spoken up in support of the housekeepers that were fired,” Shelton says.
While UNITE HERE Local 11 does not represent any of the women — the Hilton Long Beach is a non-union hotel — the group is helping to stage the rally. Additionally, Shelton reports that her group is helping the Hilton Long Beach workers in their attempts to organize a union.
Today’s protest will take place at the Hilton Long Beach, located at 701 W. Ocean Blvd.