Fucking nightmare. I'd bet the would be rapey rapists never leave tips for hotel staff either. Surely in a wealthy city like Seattle, hotels don't need to appease vile creeps like these.

Where all my "that's unconstitutional, innocent until proven guilty" fedoras at?

"The initiative would also require hotel operators to ensure that workers can access affordable health and family care."

That's a big thing! What does the initiative do to make affordable health and family care exist?

I don't know where to start on how misleading and wrong this piece is.

I'm not sure where to begin to describe how wrong this article is. This is from someone who has worked in hotels since 2011, in departments ranging from Front Desk and Housekeeping, to Concierge and revenue, so I'm pretty sure I know what i'm talking about. First, we should be able to agree that not all hotels have crappy managers.

1. No one disagress' that housekeepers work is very hard. I personally think they should be the highest paid employee's in a hotel, however, even under 'union' contracts and run hotels, they are STILL the lowest paid out of all the work groups. If union's truly cared, they'd have insisted for higher wages for housekeepers.

2. My first hotel was as a night auditor. However, part of my training was to spend 2 days with housekeeping, shadowing, cleaning rooms, inspecting rooms etc. The reason was that company *This is Renaissance, owned by Marriott* understood that a front desk agent needs to know what Housekeeping goes through. Housekeepers make it possible for us to have clean rooms for guest. During my shadowing with the supervisor, we were inspecting rooms. We found one room, door wide open, cart not blocking it, and the attendent no where to be found. We went into the room, and sat in a chair around the corner. When the attendant re-entered (he was in the stairwell on his cell), the supervisor only said 'This is why we tell you to either block the door, or close the door. We could have been anyone, even someone who wished you harm. I know its 'time saving' to open the doors and leae them open, but your safety is so much more important then getting rooms cleaned even faster.' The attendant understood. Working at the Marquiss in San Francisco, managers and supervisors would constantly have to remind the room attendents to close their doors, block it with the cart, don't open 7 rooms at once and prop them unlocked. Its for your safety. If you think you can't finish your rooms before the end of the day, call us, we will come up and help. We'd rather you be safe then hurt. Fast forward to October of last year. A guest violently attacked one of the housekeepers, one I knew personally, one I KNEW used to keep doors propped. One of the more senior associates (by the way, the Marquis is union in some departments). Her assailant jumped off the roof. No one realized she was missing until the end of the day. The man came behind her while she was propping the door with the cart out of the way and pushed her into the room. A tragic situation that time and again managers tried to emphasize that their safety is paramount. I do not blame the housekeeper persay. The man was violent and sick. Following those simple policies could alleviate the symptom.

2. For physical pain/injury? Again, working in housekeeping, the managers bough special 'boards' that were to help put pillows cases on pillows instead of them doing it the less ergonomic way. None of them used it. They kept to the old ways, that bent wrists akwardly and caused injury. The tools are there. They just don't use them.

3. As for violent or harassing guests, again, every hotel I've worked in has taken a VERY hard line against people like that. We have BOLO's, information, and even will call the cops. One guest threw a plastic key card at my partner when we both worked in the same hotel. The manager asked my partner if he wanted the guy kicked out or the cops called. He turned it down. My current company actual has a 'ban list'. Prohibiting misbehaving guests from staying with us.

4. Unite HERE going to bat for the little guy? Not at all. Again, i was in Unite HERE at the Marquis AND the Renaissance in Phoenix. They only came in to talk to Housekeepers, never to the other people they represented. They didn't 'care' about the workers, they just care about those dues. A perfect example was when Local 2 in SF was voting to increase union dues, to help fund a strike fund when the contracts came up for review in 5 years. I suggested the Union leadership, who gets a nice salary, take a paycut down to the rate that the lowest employee in the city (usually housekeepers for non tipped) and put the 'surplus' into that fund. If it was used for a strike, cool, If it wasn't, either return it to the members, or the leadership gets a nice 'bonus'...guess what? Was laughed out of the room by the leadership. At the Aloft by SFO, the union rep only talked to housekeeping, she literaly ignored my calls and emails, hell the local even banned me on Twitter when I questioned their actions in a public form. Me, a dues paying member forced to join the union. Because i'm not a 'union supporter' i was ignored, even though they CLAIM they were for everyone. They know full well they can scare housekeepers into unionizing or keeping a union, so they focus on them. They are usually the largest majority of employee's in a hotel, which means that the thing I tried to do, Decertification since they were NOT paying attention to everyone, would have required a good number of housekeeper support. As for 'affordable health care'...most hotel chains offer decent health insurance. However, the costs associated with it, and the deductibles has gone UP since the ACA took effect.

4. I noticed most of your examples were from Hilton. I also worked for them for a few months. The housekeeping manager busted her ass helping the room cleaners clean rooms. She would come in on days off even as her sister was dying to help her attendants. This was a 'nonunion' hotel by the way. Their pay did suck, everyone's did. Part of that is Hilton has lost its 'family' beliefs, the same one's marriott and starwood have today.

5. Any hotel management worth their salt wouldn't care about status, we never did. Seems like the Seattle Hilton issue isn't the unionization, its bad managers who don't care. The same can't be said for a company like Marriott (considering there are only about 30 union hotels in the entire company give or take). They do engagement surveys, and then talk to the associates as to why they said what they did, create action plans and move to improve that.

6. Unions are just as bad, if not worse, then these companies they rail against. They want the dues to promote their own agendas. They don't care about anyone but the 'union'. And this i know from first hand experiences.

And finally, a 'law' forcing this isn't the way to go. An employee just has to say something. I know not everyone feels comfortable in bringing things up, but if its important, and matters to you, you'll tell someone.

I know most folks seeing this will scoff or try to discount it, but again, 5 years in hospitality, both associate and manager, who worked in front office, housekeeping, concierge, revenue management and reservations. My experience should matter as well.

Unions are just as bad, if not worse, then these companies they rail against. They want the dues to promote their own agendas.

What other agenda would they want to promote?

I noticed most of your examples were from Hilton. I also worked for them for a few months. The housekeeping manager busted her ass helping the room cleaners clean rooms. She would come in on days off even as her sister was dying to help her attendants. This was a 'nonunion' hotel by the way. Their pay did suck, everyone's did.

Maybe the houskeepers need a union?

And finally, a 'law' forcing this isn't the way to go. An employee just has to say something.

Oh come on! Just has to ask? I commend you for taking the time to write such an exhaustive list of tripe, although tripe is actually tasty so maybe steaming pile of bed-bug shit.