During Advent each year, Latinos begin the nine-day novena of Las Posadas. In nightly processions, we relive the Holy Family's quest for a room at the inn; we travel from house to house being ceremonially rejected until we return to the church where the Holy Family is finally recognized and welcomed.

This tradition has always had special meaning for the poor, who identify with Joseph and Mary's painful experience of insignificance. In many places in Latin America, churches intentionally connect Las Posadas with current reality, bringing healing and hope into the experiences of rejection and disrespect suffered by their parishioners.

Over the past few years at our parish, our Posadas have highlighted a community crisis connected to our modern "inns." Hotel housekeepers work hard to provide a welcoming and comfortable shelter to the guests but often find that their employers do not welcome or respect their basic needs.

For almost six months, 2,800 Los Angeles hotel workers have been struggling for a contract that would provide fair wages, health insurance, safe and realistic workloads and workplace diversity. In a "David and Goliath" industry, workers have also sought to align contracts with workers in other cities so that they can have enough of a national voice to have a true dialogue with their multinational corporate employers.

The human reality of their struggle can be seen in the lives of Lupe and Aida who have worked as hotel housekeepers more than 15 years. Before 9/11, they loved creating sparkling clean places of rest and restoration for the guests. After 9/11, the industry crashed and thousands of workers were laid off. As the industry recovered, the management consistently increased workloads rather than rehire employees. As a result, many housekeepers have to work through lunch and continue after hours just to meet demands.

Lupe and Aida have both developed severe back problems as a result of the overload. In months of negotiations, the companies have refused to lessen workloads. As Jose and Maria found that indifferent Bethlehem innkeepers regarded their urgent needs as insignificant, so too do Lupe, Aida and their sisters feel like these modern innkeepers consider their pain insignificant.

Workers are now calling for a boycott of nine hotels in downtown Los Angeles (the Hyatt Regency, Wilshire Grand, Westin Bonaventure and Millennium Biltmore), the Westside (the Hyatt West Hollywood, Westin Century Plaza, St. Regis and Regent Beverly Wilshire) and the San Fernando Valley (the Sheraton Universal). These "inns" are rejecting and disrespecting the working poor who labor in them.

Where shall we stand in the real-life Posada this Advent? Are we standing outside with the rejected and despised, the poor and oppressed, the Holy Family? Or are we comfortable inside, indifferent to those who are out in the cold? Is their pain and need insignificant to us?

During Advent, the Scriptures call us to reflect both upon the coming birth of Jesus and on the second coming of the Lord. The second coming of the Lord is not only a time of joy but also a time of judgment when we will be called to account for our response to Jesus as we meet him in the least of these his brothers and sisters. May we include in our Advent devotions intentions for the hotel workers, and may we also stand with them, knocking together on the door of the inn for justice.

Father Michael D. Gutierrez is pastor of St. Anne Church and Shrine in Santa Monica, chair of Priests in Hispanic Ministry and board member of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.