BERKELEY, Calif. — More than 50 hotel workers and their supporters picketed outside the Graduate Hotel here July 24 as they prepare to vote for union representation by UNITE HERE Local 2 in a week.
“They want better working conditions,” Local 2 representative Sonya Karabel told the media. “They want wages where they can actually afford to live in or near Berkeley, and they want decent healthcare coverage.”
Housekeeper Rosalva Rodriguez said she is expected to clean as many as 20 rooms a day to exacting standards, which is simply impossible.
Union workers from four other hotels, as well as some University of California, Berkeley students and a professor, joined the picket line, as well as the president of the Alameda Labor Council and local politicians.