Hotel housekeepers strike over pay, working conditions | Thompson Hospitality plans for growth with new division | Women channel cooking into culinary empowerment
September 3, 2024
News for culturally intelligent brands and leaders
Hotel workers strike over low pay and working conditions. (Joseph Prezioso/Getty Images)
Housekeepers represented by the UNITE HERE union have walked off the job at 24 hotels across cities like San Francisco, Honolulu and Boston, demanding higher wages and automatic daily room cleaning. The strikes underscore deeper issues of strained work conditions and financial instability among hotel workers, predominantly Black and Hispanic, since the pandemic. Hotels cite staffing shortages and budget management as reasons for reduced services but say they have contingency plans to meet guests' needs as negotiations continue.
Thompson Hospitality has created a new division called Thompson Restaurants to consolidate its 14 diverse restaurant brands and streamline operations. Chief operating officer Alex Berentzen led the initiative, which will include technological upgrades like a unified point-of-sale system and digital training tools as the company grows its catering services and expands into new markets.
Women in various culinary niches are harnessing the power of food to build businesses, tell their stories, and improve their lives and those of others, including private chef Elisa Roche, who has cooked for Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry. "I hope women, going forward, feel that they have a choice in how they share their cultural identity through food," says Roche, who notes the chasm between outdated ideas of home-kitchen drudgery and glamorized professional chefs in a field where women lead less than 7% of the world's 100 top restaurants.
Dominik Mjartan, CEO of Black-owned Optus Bank, says it was on "life support" when he took on the role in 2017, but it has increased its assets by over 1,000% since then, while raising over $100 million in equity and developing a profitable business model. Mjartan is planning to step down from the CEO role and become the board vice-chairman, saying he wants to clear the way for more diversity among its senior staff.
Several brands, including Lowe's, Tractor Supply and Harley-Davidson, have rolled back their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts following criticism from conservative activists. The switches may alienate Generation Z consumers, Morning Consult brand analyst Ellyn Briggs says, adding, "Gen Z is very against rollback efforts because they value authentic brands, so being flip-floppy is not good."
The Black Food and Wine Experience, founded by Aminah "Chef Mimi" Robinson-Briscoe in Oakland, is expanding to Detroit in collaboration with Bedrock, Sept. 12-14. The event, which aims to showcase Black entrepreneurs and address diversity in the food and beverage industry, will feature local figures like Chef Quiana Rice and W.E. Da'Cruz and includes a kickoff reception, a summit on entrepreneurship and a Grand Tasting event, all showcasing industry diversity and economic empowerment.
The Greater Baltimore Urban League's Black Restaurant Accelerator Program has provided $240,000 to 24 food-service businesses, supporting Black entrepreneurs in Baltimore though financial aid, training and a support network, equipping entrepreneurs with tools for long-term success. Dante Harrison, owner of The Hamilton Sports Bar and Grill, and Donvenia Jackson, owner of French Toast Connection, share how BRAP grants and training helped them overcome financial challenges and grow their businesses.
Costco's "do the right thing" culture, which prioritizes taking care of customers, employees and long-term investments without compromising ethics, has resulted in the company successfully challenging the shareholder-first mentality, writes Michael Lee Stallard, the president and co-founder of Connection Culture Group, who urges other businesses to follow suit. "By adopting a more holistic perspective that considers the interests of employees, customers and the broader community, businesses can build a foundation for enduring success and contribute to a more equitable and sustainable economic system," Stallard writes.
A global International Labour Organisation report found employees who have disabilities earn 12% less per hour than employees without disabilities. "Three-quarters of that gap is not explained by differences in terms of educational attainment, age, and occupational category," states the report, which adds discrimination, mismatched job duties and inadequate workplace accommodations may be among the factors behind the pay gap.
Procedural guidelines for employees should be an "evolvable script" that focuses on essential tasks but allows employees to customize their approach based on the situation, write Martin Reeves, Jack Fuller and Adam Job from Boston Consulting Group's BCG Henderson Institute. "A key aspect of an evolvable script is that is utilizes the power of the employee's discretion, instead of assuming they're unquestioning robots," they write, adding employers should identify essential actions and critical behaviors.
Nurturing planning competency among employees that integrates personal and social strengths along with more traditional expertise involves reinforcing the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion to achieve overall success, write Dan Pellathy of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Maria Ficchi of Pfizer and Laura Smith of Shaw Industries. The other four areas they recommend are strengthening people's ability to handle ambiguity, having a change management mindset, incorporating storytelling into communication strategies and implementing a mentoring or coaching program.