Posted on 10/14/2010 9:07:28 PM PDT by thecodont
As a hotel housekeeper, Amelia Acosta hustles to make the beds, vacuum the floors, scrub the toilets and empty the wastebaskets in at least 15 guest rooms a day.
The smallest oversight — a soiled towel left on the bed — can be the difference between a reprimand from her boss and a generous tip from a guest.
"I'm personally dedicated to my work," she said in Spanish, wiping smudge marks from a bathroom mirror at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites in downtown Los Angeles.
Though Acosta sees herself as just another hardworking single mother, she is also one of the 861,000 workers in Southern California's largest industry. The $54-billion tourism trade has in the last few years surpassed manufacturing and wholesale trade as the region's largest job creator.
But unlike Hawaii or the Caribbean, where tourism workers are omnipresent and obvious, the industry's employees — like Acosta — are not as evident in Southern California
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I also wonder if the L.A. Times editor is feeling backlash from his readership about the celebration of illegal immigration the paper seems to be promoting, so they've decided to dial it back a bit with this story.
In other words, tourism has declined somewhat less than other industries under Obama.
Savage was saying tonight that half of CA’s prison system is illegals. Just another reason why the state is broke.
The Fed prisons it is about 40%+.
I feel so bad... I’ve never even thought of leaving a tip.
What a scrooge I’ve been :(
Don’t worry about it. The tips are pooled and the Union Super gets the biggest cut. Even when you pull them aside and give it too them personally they are so paranoid they may be caught the immediately give the tip to the Super. Slave labor, no, but the tips are the main income. The supervisors control who makes good money and who doesn’t. Trust me.
Tip if you can though. You will get better service.
Vacation sounds so much friendlier than invasion to the L.A. Times.
Papers for citizenship? No longer an issue for concern. Once you give up your dream, what's a new identity change or two between exploitive employers. Paper trails are only dangerous for gringos.
I wouldn’t mind at this point having that job. been here all my life, can’t find work, 5 months on unemployment. I have a college education and I am so damn sad.
You’ve got to figure a sharp reporter would ask whether or not she was in the USA legally/s;)
Well, she’s doing it the right way. Working her butt off and applying for citizenship. Shame on our politicians who have allowed the ones who really want to be Americans to fall by the wayside while they have let illegal alien-ship be the law of the land. I cannot tell you how pissed off this makes me.
Oh dear, you are in my prayers. I also have been through the barbeque as a self-employed business women for over 22 years. I am down in my business over 35%. I have thought of taking on a part time job and have found that my 19 yo son cannot find anything and has been at if for almost a year. He is an extremely hard worker as myself so I know how hard it is to find employment. All I can say is if you know Jehovah Jireh, (Lord our Provider) you are far better off than many. Prayers!
Big deal...99 percent of working people not only do all this daily, in their own homes, but have to work full time to boot.
What's the story here?
Savage was saying tonight that half of CA’s prison system is illegals.
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, only 17 per cent of all the inmates in California prisons are foreign born, let alone illegal aliens (as of 2008).
I certainly can't vouch for the PPIC, but I would never take any thing Savage says at face value.
Well, the story is she wants to be an American citizen. How refreshing for once. I am so sick of seeing those who come here illegally and taking advantage of our resources and have no intention of upholding our Constitution. I blame our politicians for enabling this.
Maybe you're really isolated, or live in a remote area, but we've been inundated with tens of millions of foreigners thanks to endless legal chain immigration.
Maybe you didn't notice, but we have tens of millions of Americans out of work...We don't need anymore people from anywhere. We've needed serious immigration reform for many years....
I’ve noticed! Join something that will work against the angst. Work agianst this out of control government! Bring a pitch fork if needed.
What does that have to do with the LA Times?
Well obviously you’ve never cleaned hotel rooms. I’m a hotel inspector and I can tell you it’s a tough job. I used to manage a hotel and I’ve cleaned my share of rooms.
People leave their rooms like PIGS and it’s far worse than cleaning your house. The industry standard is 25 - 35 minutes and you need the whole time to get a really clean, well put together room.
The story is that she’s doing it right, working hard, learning English and taking what jobs she can for now. Well, right vs. the peopple that never bother to assimilate, want to get welfare, WIC, food stamps, section 8 housing etc.
Oh stop....Most everybody has tough job....I am so sick of the bleeding hearts for foreigners...It's pathetic!
And if it's such GD tough job, ya ought to pay them more, and stop the GD whining..
Once again for those in a coma....
We've been inundated with tens of millions of foreigners thanks to endless legal chain immigration.
Maybe you didn't notice, but we have tens of millions of Americans out of work...We don't need anymore people from anywhere. We've needed serious immigration reform for many years....
Vacation sounds so much friendlier than invasion to the L.A. Times.
Papers for citizenship? No longer an issue for concern. Once you give up your dream, what's a new identity change or two between exploitive employers. Paper trails are only dangerous for gringos.
and...
"Still, in this economy, Acosta counts herself lucky to have a job that helps her pay her mortgage on a small house in South Los Angeles and raise her three children, including a son studying at UC Santa Barbara.
"'This job has been like a blessing for me,' she said after a recent shift."
Reading between the lines, it appears that "while on vacation in the U.S., she met and married a man from Durango, Mexico, and started a family" at least 18-20 years ago, long ago enough for her to now have a college-age son. So apparently she's been in the U.S. 18-20 years as an illegal alien who has overstayed her visitor's visa, and has gone undetected from employer to employer, enough to make a nice living for herself and eventually afford a mortgage on a little American house.
Dreamy, isn't it?
You're right, this is an illegal immigration story shot through a soft-focus lens. The daily reality is much grittier. In my neighborhood, there's a bench outside a public school which apparently has been designated by the "day laborers" as their pickup point in the morning. Each day I see a different one parked there waiting and looking furtive (they always look furtive). About a mile north, early one morning I saw four men emerge from what seemed to be someone's backyard (perhaps they were living in the garage?), complete with work clothes and backpacks, cheerily running (yes, running) off as a group through a nearby parking lot, to another "day laborer" pickup point.
But one way or another, the LA Times is trying to make illegal immigration palatable to its readership. Not all are buying it. Read the comments following the story.
I don’t have a bleeding heart for foreigners. I also realize how many people are out of work but I can tell you I meet hotel owners every darn day that tell me they cannot get people to work as housekeepers.
As I said I’ve been in the industry and I paid on average $1.50 more than minimum to start with guaranteed reviews for a raise every 6 months. I’d go whole summers just trying to find someone to hire.
So in a job like that, sadly what are people to do? I do believe there are some jobs Americans do not want to do and will go on welfare before they do. I’m seeing it even in this economy every day.
And as for paying more, most people are looking for deals and have driven the cost of hotel rooms down to about rock bottom. I am meeting owners every day that are losing their hotels so before you accuse me of bleeding for foreigners maybe you should figure out what you’re talking about.
I live where everyone is impacted by the illegal because our governor has made our state a sanctuary state. You are preaching to the wrong person.
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