Photo by Matt Schorr
Tristan Call speaks on the behalf of Workers' Dignity, a nonprofit working for low-wage employees in Nashville.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tristan Call, a PhD candidate from Vanderbilt University's Department of Anthropology, informed researchers and community members at the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance of an unfortunate trend among hospitality workers at Nashville hotels and other institutions: wage theft and human rights abuses.
Workers' Dignity, a nonprofit organization that Tristan represented, published a preliminary report in February detailing instances of declining wages and wage theft, poor safety practices and high injury levels, and obstacles to personal and family healthcare. The group interviewed 52 people employed throughout the city as hospitality workers, the majority of whom were women of color.
"Data collected from from our survey questionnaire highlights disturbing patterns of exclusion and abuse that significantly harm the health and well-being of Nashville cleaning workers and their families," the report stated.
Those patterns included the following:
Declining Wages and Outright Wage Theft
- Nearly 10 percent of all surveyed workers make less than the federally-mandated minimum wage of $7.25/hour.
- Eighty-nine percent of those working more than 40 hours a week report not receiving overtime pay.
- Housekeepers' average wages in Nashville -- $8.36/hour -- are dropping to levels far below the national median, even as housing and transportation costs are rising across Davidson County.
- Housekeepers with at least five years' experience report even lower pay: an average of $8.29/hour.
- In extreme cases, some workers report not being paid any wages at all, and are fired or threatened when they try to recover those wages.
Poor Safety Practices and High Injury Levels
- Thirty-nine percent of workers report receiving no training at all on workplace safety or toxic cleaning chemicals.
- Twenty-one percent say their employers do not provide personal protective equipment such as gloves and masks.
- Twenty-seven percent of workers have been injured on the job.
- Of those reporting an injury, 79 percent say they were denied emergency medical care.
- Twenty-six percent of workers report not getting any breaks during their workday.
Obstacles to Personal and Family Healthcare
- Fifty-one percent of workers report they are not allowed to take sick days (whether paid or unpaid).
- Only 17 percent receive paid sick days.
What Workers' Dignity hopes to accomplish, Call explained, is build enough power to make consequences for employers who take advantage of their workers.
Hotels, he added, are particularly targeting vulnerable workers, and they hold the most potential for positive change.
Based on findings from the preliminary study, Workers' Dignity compiled a list of recommendations for individual hotels, industry leaders and the concerned public:
- Prioritize improvements in hotel cleaning to reduce health disparities for all low-income workers
- Implement further research with direct worker participation
- Increase worker-directed enforcement to wage-and-hour standards and safety rules
- Improve wages and conditions for all workers under the same roof
- Eliminate retaliation against whistleblowers, organizers and injured workers
- Develop "High Road Hotels" program with worker and management participation
- Make public financing of hospitality projects contingent on compliance with the Worker-Designed Cleaning Workers' Bill of Rights
The report credited Call and two others -- Patricke Cate, MEd from Vanderbilt University's Community Development and Action and Paul Speer, PhD, Professor of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University -- for providing research support. It was funded by the Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Engaged Research Core.
About Workers' Dignity
Workers' Dignity is a member-led workers' center of low-wage workers in Nashville, TN, dedicated to achieve economic justice and dignity for all through direct action. It began in 2010 and is now composed of several hundred low-wage worker members, primarily Latino and African American.
About the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance
Founded in 1999, the Alliance bridges the institutions of Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University. Its mission is to enrich learning and advance clinical research by developing and supporting mutually beneficial partnerships between Meharry Medical College, Vanderbilt University and the communities they serve.