Union contract limits number of rooms to be cleaned at hotel
After a year of negotiations, hotel workers at the Stamford Sheraton Hotel voted this week in favor of their first-ever union contract.
“I am very proud of my co-workers for our new contract,” said Mariela Sanchez, a housekeeper who has worked at the hotel for more than four years.
Sanchez had in November been among the hotel workers protesting what they called “unsafe” conditions at the hotel. A complaint filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleged that housekeepers routinely were forced to wheel around 100-pound carts with broken wheels, laden with toxic chemicals.
Hotel workers voted to unionize in 2018, and have since been members of Local 217 of Unite Here, a union representing about 3,000 hotel and food-service workers in Connecticut.
The new three-year contract limits the number of rooms housekeepers are responsible for cleaning to 16 rooms during every eight-hour shift.
The contract also makes sure that workers will have jobs if the hotel is sold — any buyers would be obligated to hire current employees, recognize their union and maintain wages, benefits and the union contract.
From a financial aspect, the new union contract increases pay $1.40 an hour over the three years of the agreement, with non-tipped employees getting $15 an hour, growing to $15.90 over two years.
“We are very pleased with this settlement especially since it will allow the workers to improve their ability to care for their families, work with dignity and provide great service to the Sheraton guests,” said Connie Holt, the union’s chief negotiator and the secretary-treasurer of UniteHere! Local 217.
The union also represents employees at the Stamford Hilton and the Greenwich Hyatt. The contract covering employees at the Hyatt expires in September.