Hotel Union Unite Here Says Mask Mandates Aren’t Enough for Worker Safety
Photo Credit: One of the hotel industry's largest labor unions is refuting a corporate push to limit daily housekeeping in light of coronavirus. Rawpixel / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Skift Take
Unite Here's push to maintain housekeeping services on a daily basis at hotels could protect many jobs. But cash-strapped hotel owners may not have the finances to make it work until demand returns.
Days after the American Hotel & Lodging Association called on the Trump administration and governors to enact a mask mandate across all 50 states to combat the rising spread of coronavirus, one of the largest hospitality labor unions says the overdue move doesn’t go far enough in protecting workers.
Unite Here, a U.S. and Canada hotel worker union, Tuesday praised the AHLA for recommending both hotel employees and guests wear masks in public spaces. Hotel companies like Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt have since responded with their own company-wide mask mandates to be enforced later this month. But Unite Here argues masks are only one part of a heightened safety plan that should protect workers.
“It’s long overdue. We’ve been pushing this since the spring, and we’vebeen extremely frustrated that both federal and state governments and our industry was slow to respond,” Unite Here International President D. Taylor said. “There’s no difference from workers and guests i
