Housekeepers End Walkout, Remain Upset at Hotel, Union

Twelve days after they walked off their jobs, 28 members of the housekeeping staff of the Burbank Holiday Inn returned to work Monday, still expressing discontent with their union and working conditions at the hotel.

Gloria Tartaglione, who led the walkout at the 375-room hotel, said maids and laundry workers returned to their jobs after they were told that they would not be transferred to another hotel, where their hours would be cut.

Termed ‘Wildcat Strike’

Members of the cleaning staff, mostly Latinas who speak little or no English, began picketing the hotel Jan. 30, alleging unfair employment practices on the part of the hotel’s owner, Joseph Perry, and lack of support from Local 531 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union.

Perry had earlier described the protest as a “wildcat strike” banned by the women’s contract and said he regarded the women as having resigned their jobs.

Tartaglione said she and the other protesters returned to work after Perry notified them last weekend that their old jobs were available. Tartaglione was a spokeswoman for the workers, although her own job was that of executive housekeeper at the hotel, making her a member of management, not of the union.

Perry was unavailable for comment, but union spokesman Joe Criscione confirmed Monday that the women had been allowed to return to work.

But the women’s return has not resolved all the disputes.

The day after she left her job, Tartaglione filed a discrimination charge with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her written complaint alleged, “Mr. Perry only permitted me to hire Hispanics which he referred to as ‘wetbacks.’. . . The owner prefers to hire non-English speaking personnel in these positions because he can take advantage of them and easily intimidate them.”

Two members of the federal commission’s staff accompanied Tartaglione and the others when they returned to work Monday.

Grievance Filed

The union also filed a grievance with the hotel charging that Tartaglione, as a member of management, violated the contract by coercing workers into an illegal walkout.

“She led them out, and we got them back in,” Criscione said Monday. “We don’t mind people walking out. That’s our game. We love every minute of it. But we want to represent them. . . .

“What they’re basically fighting now are working conditions, and I don’t blame them.”

The housekeepers have complained that they were prohibited from using mops except in public areas and were made to scrub elsewhere on their hands and knees. They also alleged that workers were not allowed into the hotel until five minutes before their shift started, even if it was raining.

The workers also complained that the union had cooperated with officials of the Burbank and Glendale Holiday Inns in agreeing to a three-year contract, which went into effect Nov. 19, 1984. The contract prohibits workers from striking, allows for rollbacks in wages and approves reductions in benefits, including elimination of health insurance and reduction in vacations.

Criscione defended the contract, however, saying, “The main thing we got now is the right to negotiate by contract, which we didn’t have before . . . . It’s what you call a foot-in-the-door contract.”