Fiona Ma to march alongside hotel housekeepers

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and other women leaders will join hundreds of hotel housekeepers Wednesday as they converge on San Francisco hotels.

  ·  San Francisco Examiner   ·  Link to Article

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and other women leaders will join hundreds of hotel housekeepers Wednesday as they converge on San Francisco hotels.

The housekeepers are members of Unite Here Local 2, the union currently in contract negotiations with San Francisco’s major hotel chains. The group’s 2004 strike and subsequent lockout by employers temporarily hobbled The City’s tourism industry. The two sides have made little progress at the bargaining table so far, according to union leaders. Hotel management says the economic downturn has drastically affected their industry’s bottom line.

Ma, along with students and religious leaders, will carry the 60-foot Hope Quilt in its second leg of a seven-city “Hope for Housekeepers” national tour. Each patch of the quilt represents a housekeeper’s story. The delegation will begin its day in Santa Clara and arrive at San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency at 5 Embarcadero Center at noon. The day will end with a rally and march from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt at 345 Stockton St.

Union leaders say Hyatt housekeepers often clean 30 hotel rooms a day and many forgo health insurance because of the high cost.