Comments

1
If the workload limit is to prevent injury, you wouldn't want it to be sidestepped just at the cost of time-and-a-half, would you?
2
It's interesting and innovative that the hotel union, which has only three or so hotels in the Seattle area, is going this route to provide worker protections.

The only thing I would quibble with is the time-and-a-half pay after your quota. At many of the hotels I worked at, if a maid finished her number of assigned rooms, she could bid on additional rooms at a per-room rate that was much higher than time-and-a-half.

3
Good point @2. This issue could be taken care of by adding the words "at least" to time-and-a-half.
4
Union power grab disguised as worker safety initiatives. The worker safety idea seams like a good one, but this is a lot more than worker safety. Employees working alone should be supplied panic buttons, that is a great idea. Workers who suffer harassment should be able to report it without judgment. But asking employers to act as the judge and jury on people being accused and keeping records of people being accused may cross the line. How about the employer just turns the people being accused over to the police. That seams like a better idea. Idiots who sexually harass others should have the cops called on them.

5
Dling57 dear, how exactly is this a power grab? UNITE HERE has six hotels downtown: Most of them are tiny - Best Westerns and such - plus the Westin, which is a dump. There's no dues to be made off this, no "union bosses" to get fat off the wages of the workers. It's just an employee protection initiatve. Sometimes a banana is just a banana.
6
@5 Part 7 Section 17 C states "May be waived in a bona fide written collective bargaining agreement". They're just trying to financially appeal to hotel companies whose employees have rejected UNITE HERE.
7
I guess I'm not seeing the financial benefit of a union contract to the hotels. The panic button makes sense and is easily implemented without a union. The insurance is a great thing as well, but that's hardly going to be alleviated by a union contract.

Here's my sexual exploitation anecdote: When I worked at the Four Seasons Olympic, I would often get called to help deliver room service trays at breakfast. I would always partner with my friend, who was a beautiful red-haired woman. She would knock on the door and announce "Room Service", and I would bring the tray in, set it up, open the curtains and pour them coffee. I can't count the times I was the buzzkill/disappointment to a guy who had his business out, hoping to shock (or, in their minds, drive to distraction) my red-haired co-worker. But I got to see a lot of naked guys, so I was happy.

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