Since 2006 in the United States the union UNITE-HERE has been campaigning for hotel workers' rights. The problems highlighted in the piece below will be familiar to housekeeping staff in New Zealand.

• Hotel housekeepers are facing increasing injuries due to heavy workloads. In most hotels, housekeepers must clean 15 or more rooms per day.


• Hotel housekeepers must rush to meet a daily quota of cleaned rooms. They frequently skip rest periods and meals in order to finish, and even work off the clock to meet their quotas.


• In recent years, corporate hotel chains such as Hilton, Hyatt and Sheraton have increased both the pace and the amount of work performed by housekeepers.


• Most hotels have recently introduced new room amenities without reducing the number of rooms assigned to housekeepers each day. Luxury beds with heavier mattresses and linens, triple-sheeting, duvets, and extra pillows are increasingly common. Other add-ons like coffee pots, exercise equipment and large hard-to-clean mirrors make room cleaning more difficult and time-consuming.


• With hotel business booming and guests paying high room rates, hotel housekeepers face increasing time pressure to maintain a quality guest experience. Many hotel housekeepers report that the hotels are understaffed and they must work at unsafe speeds, increasing their risk of injury.

www.hotelworkersrising.org