Marriott's Shameful Hotel Tipping Scam

[unhappycamper]

http://www.alternet.org/labor/marriotts-shameful-hotel-tipping-scam?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Come on, Marriott -- stop playing Lord of the Manor and just pay your housekeepers a decent wage!

Marriott's Shameful Hotel Tipping Scam
By Jim Hightower

October 8, 2014 |


As an old popular song from the 1970s asks, what do you get if you "work your fingers right down to the bone"? Boney fingers.

As the hardworking housekeepers for the sprawling Marriott chain of hotels know, that's more than a cute song lyric; it's the truth. Mostly women, these "room attendants," as they're called, are paid a poverty wage of barely $8 an hour by this hugely profitable lodging conglomerate to preform a very hard, physical job. Compelled to do very heavy lifting at unsafe speeds, they suffer the highest injury rate in the so-called "hospitality" industry. Some two-thirds of them have to take pain medication just to get through their day of heaving 100-pound mattresses, stooping to clean floors and toilets and twisting to readjust furniture in 15 to 20 rooms per shift.

Yet, Marriott's CEO publicly hails the very women he exploits as "the heart of the house," saying his chain likes to express its appreciation to them with "special recognition events" during International Housekeepers Week. Yes, exploited room refreshers are not rewarded with a living wage, but with their very own congratulatory week -- how great is that?

Marriott is the corporate domain of the Royal Marriott Dynasty. The family was a big backer of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, which so sordidly tried to divide Americans between the few noble "Makers" (like the Marriotts) and the ignoble "Takers" -- ie: workers and retirees. The chain has 4,000 hotels with 690,000 rooms in 78 countries, operating under 18 different brand names (including Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Gaylord, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn and Residence Inn, just to name a few). It hauled in nearly $13 billion in revenue last year.

[CrispyQ]

1. As a customer, I'd be pissed.

When did "COST OF DOING BUSINESS" get sloughed off on employees and customers?

[Stargazer09]

2. Maybe add a note?

"I am sorry your employer treats you like shit."

[AllyCat]

3. I always tip, but this ticks me off!

Marriott should pay its people, not ask consumers who have already paid a huge sum for their rooms, to subsidize their low wages. Jerks.