http://www.onedaylongersf.org/wp-content/uploads/Nenita-300x296.jpg
Among the housekeepers filing complaints was Nenita Ibe, a housekeeper at the Hyatt Santa Clara for the past 10 years. Hyatt Santa Clara is a non-union hotel where workers are fighting to achieve a fair process to decide whether or not to form a union.
Nenita is a 68-year old widow and mother of 5. She came to the United States from the Philippines in 1996. Nenita remembers the exact moment she was injured on the job:
On September 4, 2009, I was making a bed at the Hyatt and I felt severe pain in my right shoulder and arm as I tucked in the sheets. I work with flat sheets and we have to push our whole arm under the mattress to make the bed correctly. I immediately reported this to the Housekeeping manager who asked me several times if I was sure I hurt myself at work. After I insisted that I never had this pain before, she directed me to go see a doctor. I went to all the therapy sessions, missing about 2 to 3 hours of work every time I went in for a check-up. I was assigned to do “light” duty – folding linen and towels, and cleaning shower curtains – which required me to use my injured arm and hands. I did not recover. I still work 8 hours a day cleaning rooms in painful anguish. I used to work with both arms and hands, but now I only have the full use of my left arm. I use my knee and left arm to lift the mattress to tuck in the sheets.
http://www.onedaylongersf.org/?p=1265
Now leaders like Kim Gandy, former President of NOW and current Vice-President and General Council for Feminist Majority, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) are joining women like Nenita Ibe in speaking out and shedding light on the plight of some of the most invisible members of our society. ”We have much to do in the realm of worker safety across the board – eight to twelve million workers suffer work-related injuries on an annual basis. These hard-working men and women are at risk due to overwork and other factors – factors that are readily preventable,” said Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3). “We must do more to protect all our workers, and I am proud to stand with UNITE HERE today and say to Hyatt and other employers across the country that hotel workers will no longer tolerate being overworked and exploited at risk to their health.”
what are they going to do next, force hotels to have a larger toilet so that my poop would not clog it when i use it?
