Coming out...

So I have been working at the hotel as a bellman for about 14 months now. I started as a busser at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara in April of last year, but transferred to Guest Services as a bellman a few months ago. When I started working at the hotel, I did it simply to make sure that I had an income while I was preparing for the LSATs, or the Law School Admissions Test. What I experienced, and what has led me to stand before you today, is the reason why I feel that my co-workers and I need to band together and create the Union.

Before I even began, I told the managers that I needed three weeks off in July because I had planned a trip to New Orleans and to Vietnam to volunteer. They reluctantly accepted it, but said that I would get no other requests approved for awhile AND I would be heavily scheduled to cover for the other busser, who was on vacation. Three months into the job, I was already getting scheduled eight, nine, ten, or more days in a row.

During the Fourth of July last year, We got slammed for three days in a row, hit with hungry guests from the moment we opened to the moment we closed. On each of those three days, I was running nonstop for nine hours. I limped home everyday and couldn't think about anything else except that I would have to come back the next day. The worst day came when, after another nine hours on the ninth day of an eleven day stretch, the Stewarding Manager FORCED me to stay overtime to count every spoon, fork, knife, water glass, soda glass, coffee cup, coffee cup saucer, butter knife, and breadplate in the entire restaurant by myself. I was the last person in the restaurant aside from my direct supervisor, and she caught me as I was getting ready to clock out. When she told me that I had to stay and count all the utensils, even my direct supervisor told her to let me go home, but she glared at him, and then me, and said "NO, this has to be done NOW!" She said it as if she commanded me, as if I was nothing more than a servant to do her bidding. If I had more energy, I might've been able to stand up to her that day, but after 9 days, and 2 more to go, I gave up. I stayed and counted every utensil in the restaurant. It took me another two hours.

Our Union Committee went public last Thursday, and I’ve had some of the best workdays that I’ve had in months. After the Committee brought the delegation of community members and religious leaders on Monday night, I felt so happy that I couldn’t help but smile from cheek to cheek.

What’s more is that I feel more confident. I feel like I know my rights at the hotel and that I know that I can stand up for myself. In fact, last night, in a conversation with the doorman, I found out that my manager had been spreading misstatements to my co-workers about the Union. I went to the Assistant Front Desk Manager and said to her: “Laura, with all due respect, can you tell the other managers to stop talking about the Union with the employees? I am getting really tired of correcting the nonsense that the managers are putting out.”

I am very happy that you want to support us. The hotel has put up quite an effort to keep us from organizing our Union, but we will prevail, and it is with your strength and faith that will keep us moving forward and reassure us that this is not just about money, or benefits, or retirement, but respect, because "[t]here is no faith without hope. There is no justice without compassion. There is no humanity without fairness. Every one of us, the least of us, is still divine.”