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Abstract #159718

Pamela Vossenas, MPH¹, Marianne P. Brown, MPH², Linda Delp, PhD³, Eric Frumin, MA¹, and Joan Moriarty, MS⁴. (1) UNITE HERE Occupational Safety & Health Program, Hotel Division, 275 Seventh Avenue, 11th floor, New York, NY 10001, 212-332-9318, pvossenas@unitehere.org, (2) Former Director UCLA-LOSH Program, 13200 Warren Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90066, (3) Labor Occuaptional Safety & Health program/IRLE, University of California Los Angeles, Box 951478, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1478, (4) Strategic Affairs, UNITE HERE, 275 Seventh Avenue, 11th floor, New York, NY 10001

Workers at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Hilton experience hazardous working conditions, low wages, limited health care access and a work environment hostile to their demands for union representation. Increasing political participation since 2006 by LAX Hilton workers and community allies has yielded improvements in government and employer policies affecting the health and welfare of LAX-area hotel employees.

Working conditions at the LAX Hilton differ markedly from Hilton Hotels that are owned and operated by the Hilton Corporation and that have collective bargaining agreements with UNITE HERE, the union representing hotel workers. The Hilton Corporation operates but does not own the LAX Hilton, which is non-union. Hilton-owned and operated hotels that are also unionized have taken steps to reduce housekeeper workloads through joint labor-management policies and practices.

This presentation compares injury rates from the LAX Hilton to lower rates from union hotels that are owned and operated by the Hilton Corporation and to lower national industry rates. Additional data include workload comparisons and descriptive information on musculoskeletal injuries of LAX Hilton housekeepers. The authors will highlight successful worker and community initiatives: winning City Council approval of the LAX-area hotel Living Wage Ordinance which also affects health benefits; testifying at state Senate hearings about issues affecting immigrant hotel workers; and documenting hazardous workloads through worker requests to LAX Hilton management for employer records of housekeeper injuries.

Learning Objectives:

• List three ways that LAX Hilton workers and community alllies collaborated to achieve the said outcomes.
• Describe actions and strategies workers carried out by workers and community members.
• Develop approaches that incorporate worker and community collaboration in political and policy decisions to solve public health problems in the broadest sense.

Keywords: Vulnerable Populations, Community Involvement

Related Web page: www.laane.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.