On a recent Thursday afternoon, Danny Glover sat cross-legged on a sofa in a small stucco house on Felton Avenue in Lennox. The actor and activist had on a black baseball cap and rumpled sports coat over a red T-shirt proclaiming "Hotel Workers Rising!" He and a handful of religious and community leaders listened while almost half of the 11 laborers present described what it's like to be a housekeeper, dishwasher, waiter or bartender at a high-rise hotel near the Los Angeles International Airport.

The mostly Hispanic women, along with a couple men, also spoke passionately about how their low-wage jobs with few benefits affected their immediate families plus their blighted communities.

And, finally, they talked about their hopes and dreams for the future.

"I work at the Hilton LAX as a banquet server," said Ana Mendez, who was hosting the Coalition for a New Century gathering in her parents' home. "And it's very hard for me to close my eyes to all the injustice all of us workers live daily. Most of us don't have medical or retirement benefits. And if we're eligible, we have to pay up to $300 per month with a co-payment from $25 to $100 each time we see a doctor."

The 23-year-old woman said she was a second-generation hotel worker, reporting that her father had worked two jobs for 25 years and still was barely able to support his family. She lamented the fact she was unable to spend much time with him because of his long hours at work.

She also pointed out that banquet servers like herself make only $6.75 an hour, so they must rely heavily on tips. And recently, she said, her tips had been drastically cut from 20 to eight percent by hotel management.

"Our poor pay reflects here in the community," Mendez pointed out. "Lennox has a high crime rate. There's a lot of vandalism, gangs, and kids are dropping out of school.

"I wish that we can work together with the hotel industry to make a plan that benefits the community and the industry, as well as the workers. And we're asking for your support. We want you to make the community aware of what's going on in this area."

National campaign
The house meeting was part of a national "Hotel Workers Rising" tour kickoff that started the day before on Feb. 15 in San Francisco and ended in Boston three days later.

The purpose of the campaign, which featured Senator John Edwards as well as Glover, is to empower the 1.3 million hotel workers across the United States as they try to improve their jobs and lives. Currently, the median hourly rate for a hotel housekeeper is $8.67.

Locally, the Coalition for a New Century was launched on Feb. 3 by a broad-based group of churches, community organizations, labor unions, workers, educators and residents of the area. Its goal is to not only raise job standards for thousands of workers and the communities they live in, but also to increase city investment in the LAX tourism industry.

Robin Waner, who works at the Radisson Hotel, reported that he actually does three jobs --- bartender, houseman and dishwasher --- but is only paid for one. He said his 13-year-old daughter wants to go to law school to become a lawyer, but he was unsure if he could afford to send her to college.

"It's a constant struggle," he said. "I have no health insurance, although I've worked in the hotel industry for 20 years. Last year I went to the emergency room at Santa Monica Hospital twice. They sent me a bill for $1,200, which I have no way of paying.

"I do not like the fact that taxpayers have to pay for my medical care," he noted. "I consider myself a professional, as well as my coworkers. But we're not treated as professionals, and I think it's time for a change."

Patricia Delgado also was tired of working three jobs at the Westin LAX Hotel instead of just being the PBX operator she was hired for. She said chronic understaffing to cut labor costs basically means poorer service.

"I believe that the guests are also affected by this," she said. "They pay top dollar to stay at our hotel, and they don't get the full service that they deserve because we're always understaffed."

In addition, two young Hispanic mothers who were hotel housekeepers wept as they shared their belief that they had lost babies during the later stages of pregnancy because of the strenuous physical demands of their jobs. Both said their supervisors were insensitive to their health problems, declaring that they would be fired if they took any more time off. In pain, the women reluctantly went back to work.

No 'easy task'
Glover, who took notes during the hour-long session, said he was moved by the "passion" of the hotel workers' concerns. He lauded them for having the courage to tell their stories in front of an audience. And he promised to use his own visibility to act as an advocate for changing working conditions in hotels.

"Your courage only strengthens our resolve," said the actor, who has worked to reduce poverty and disease in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. "And we're going to have to work hard.

"This is not going to be an easy task," he stressed. "We know that this is not something that is going to go away tomorrow. Because one victory is always met with some resistance. So it means that we have to keep building and building and building."

After the house meeting, Father Perry Leiker, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Hawthorne, which also serves Lennox and parts of Inglewood and Lawndale, told The Tidings that he wanted to be involved in the national and local campaigns for lots of reasons.

First, many of his parishioners work in hotels near LAX, and he has been "really hit" by their stories for years. In fact, he marched with them five years ago when the Radisson Hotel, under new ownership, reneged on a union contract.

Second, he's watched parents labor at two or three hotel jobs to make ends meet, and still have no health benefits.

Third, he believes it's "atrocious" for laborers to not have any say about how they can better their own lives.

"What I want most of all is to see that the workers get benefits and wages that are befitting the hard work that they do," Father Leiker said. "I'd like to see the hotels themselves also benefit. I don't want them to go broke, but to find a way together to improve the whole thing, as well as to improve the area.

"Because if the wages and benefits increase, the whole area will be lifted up. And the area is in the condition it's in precisely because these are low-paying jobs, and parents are working so much instead of being at home."

After a moment, the priest added, "To come into Los Angeles and to not have a showplace at that entryway makes no sense. And it makes everyone a loser."