Skift Take
The hotel industry needs a third-party verification system for the litany of new Covid cleaning and safety measures. In a crowded field of privatized competitors, it isn't clear if Unite Here Local 11's will become the industry standard — but hotel guests and workers should welcome its transparent approach.
It seemed like every hotel owner rolled out their own version of a heightened heath and cleaning protocol during the pandemic. But it was a giant question mark over who is ultimately in charge of enforcing the new rules.
A labor group is the latest to step up to that enforcer-in-chief responsibility.
Unite Here Local 11, the Southern California and Arizona chapter of the hospitality worker’s union, launched a grading system Thursday for worker and guest safety at hotels in Los Angeles County. Leaders with the organization as well as members say the initiative is necessary to keep workers and guests safe and provide transparency to people considering a hotel stay.
“You can have all the language you want, but if it’s not enforceable in the middle of the pandemic, we’re asking for trouble,” said Kurt Peterson, co-president of Unite Here Local 11. “The idea is to provide guests with this information so they can decide whether or not a hotel is a place they want to stay.”
Unite Here’s plan scores hotels on an “A” to “F” grading scale around four criteria: enforceable safety measures, healthcare, job recall rights, and the ability to speak up on the job without fear of retaliation.
Job recall rights include the ability for a furloughed worker to get their job back when demand returns as well as the right for a worker with health vulnerabilities to the virus to stay home until conditions improve and the pandemic is contained.
“The right to recall is pretty big for me,” said Yesenia Ortiz, a b
