By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Hundreds of hotel workers and their allies in clergy, civil society and the general populace converge on the Hyatt Andaz luxury hotel in West Hollywood, California, on Thursday, July 21, 2011 to protest Hyatt’s inattention to abnormally high injury rates among their housekeepers. The hotel workers – who are members of UNITE HERE Local 11, the international hotel and restaurant employees union – stage a protest in the center of Sunset Boulevard. They shut down traffic as several housekeepers – who normally labor invisibly – perform their work tasks in the middle of the street at rush hour, inviting the world to see the hazards they face on the job.
The Los Angeles Police Department and West Hollywood Sheriffs Department arrest 24 protestors, which does not deter the rest of the crowd from continuing to march and picket against Hyatt’s unsafe business practices.
Tags: activism activist andaz arrest boycott California clergy community dignity hotel hotel workers hotelworkers housekeepers hyatt john wilhelm labor local 11 Los Angeles march picket police protest respect rights street theater union unite here unsafe weho west hollywood workplace