Then came an app that fed them one room at a time and dictated the sequence. VIP rooms jumped the queue regardless of where they sat on the floor, so workers found themselves retracing hallways and doubling back on elevators, still pushing the heavy carts. The app “stripped them of a whole set of control and autonomy,” said Culinary Union research director Zach Poppel.
“It was basically putting a smartphone in the hand of a housekeeper as a way to give assignments,” said UNITE HERE Local 226 organizing director Johanna Dalton.
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Naturally, the hotel bosses resisted these demands. As former UNITE HERE President D. Taylor recalled, “I don’t think it was a coincidence that the last issue settled in Las Vegas, as we geared up for a strike, was technology, and the last issue in the Marriott strike was technology.”
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“When technology controls workers, they don’t feel good, they get burned out,” said Mirtha Rojas, a UNITE HERE member in Las Vegas. “When workers control technology, they feel more confident and more respected. But to win that respect, the workers have to stand up. We have to take what we know and turn it into power.”