LOS ANGELES—The housekeepers have been organizing in secret for months. At the beginning of November they made their antisexist fight public. Just days after the presidential election of Donald Trump, they won a vote in favor of unionization, 27-15. There are many more battles to come. Most important is the lifetime struggle for a better world; a world totally run by workers, not profiteering capitalists. Let’s turn every worker’s struggle into a step towards communism.
As reported previously in CHALLENGE, these sexist bosses at an upscale hotel near our church have been violating labor laws for a long time. The 50 housekeepers, mainly Latin women, had to work through breaks and lunch to finish the rooms (many with balconies) that they were required to clean each day. In fact, they often had to work beyond the end of their shift with no pay.
They have been working harder than ever, especially after the hotel owners hired union-busters. They used “captive-audience meetings,” where workers were told reasons they shouldn’t unionize. These union-busters tried to terrorize and intimidate the workers for wanting better working conditions. Seven workers were told to attend one of these captive-audience meetings; instead twenty workers and neighborhood supporters showed up and disrupted management’s plans. Later the bosses decided to trap the housekeepers by meeting with them one on one as they cleaned rooms.
During their celebration rally at City Hall before a Planning Commission meeting, the housekeepers thanked supporters and said that the community has always been supportive and they couldn’t have done it without them. In reality it’s the workers that inspired the resident activists, union leaders and others that had come out in support of their brave actions. They had support from other hotel workers as well, who had also gone through labor disputes in the past. One of the workers from another hotel said that the neighborhood residents give massive support to the workers and just wished more workers at the surrounding hotels were as bold and showed this kind of solidarity.
Instead of feeling powerless after Trump’s election, one of the workers said, “With Trump being elected president, we felt we urgently needed to become a union to stand up for immigrant workers under attack.”
Another said, “Actions are more powerful than words.”
We can learn from the solidarity and bold actions of these hotel workers when we fight racism and sexism. We all must be organized and become engaged in class struggles, such as this one or against racist police violence that has been an ongoing struggle throughout the globe. We, as workers, need to support one another. In order to defeat sexism, racism and all the ills of capitalism, we must move our friends, family, church members, co-workers, and students to support these fightbacks because the bosses aren’t going to give up that easily. We must prepare ourselves for larger fights to come, as the housekeepers fight for their contract and other workers in the hotel fight to join the union as well. But we must never forget that “It’s the whole damn system.” The bosses will do everything in their power to continue to exploit workers in order to increase their profits. We must do everything in our power to build anti-racist, anti-sexist, working-class unity. Join the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party and organize for a better world. Power to the workers!