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Current Work

1. Hotel Workers Rising – See information below. Join us.
2. UFCW Mercado Organizing – More information, contact Derecka Mehrens.
3. Healthy Worker Initiative.
4. Milpitas Wal-Mart Expansion – More information, contact Derecka Mehrens.
   

Hotel Workers Rising Overview – The Situation
Millions of hotel workers across this nation have no voice on the job. Here’s a snapshot of what they face:

• Housekeepers must clean between 16 and 24 rooms a day, working through breaks and lunch and into unpaid overtime to meet this quota.
  
• This brutal workload leads to one of the highest on-the-job injury rates for working women in the nation.
• Wages average only $7.50 to $8.50 an hour, or about $1300 to $1473 monthly for full time work. These meager paychecks mean they can not provide even the very basics for their families. 
  
• Workers are typically asked to pay health insurance premiums of $300 per month for a family. For most, this expense puts health care out of reach for them.
• Hotels typically keep the gratuities that many of us leave when we stay at a hotel to reward hard work. 
• Workers lack sick leave, paid or unpaid.
  

Our Work for Justice
Through the nationwide campaign "Hotel Workers Rising!", hotel workers across the country are coming together in a collective cry for justice, including:

• Livable wages
  
• Paid sick days
  
• Affordable family health coverage
  
• A voice on the job
  
• Humane and safe workloads

The Interfaith Council Acts
The Interfaith Council has supported local hotel workers in the following ways:

• We formed a committee of clergy and lay leaders who have organized candlelight prayer vigils, delegation visits to management and have given testimony at community forums.
• We invited hotel workers to share their stories with congregations during Labor in the Pulpit, and throughout the year.
• We draw upon our sacred traditions and symbols. We organized a “Bitter Herbs and Honey” offering bitter herbs to hotel management who had negotiated a good contract and bitter herbs to hotel management who had negotiated a poor contract.
• We gathered 6,000 pledges of support for hotel workers from over 50 congregations and 165 services. All major faith traditions supported this effort. We later presented these pledge cards to hotel management.
  

Watch Video | Created by Mitty High School Students, Nov., 2009

See Poster | Created by a Mitty High School Student