A QUESTION OF DIGNITY

Step inside this room. Look around," the hotel housekeeper said after checking to make sure the hallways were clear of supervisors. "Tell me how long it would take you to clean it."

I gasped and figured it would take me at least two days.

The room looked like it had been occupied by a dozen conventioneers. There was spilled booze, and who knows what that yuck was on the carpet. There was stuff on the toilet and more stuff on the sheets. The air was thick with cigar smoke, the mirrors were soiled and the walls stained with fingerprints.

"I am required to do 13 rooms a day," she said. "No breaks."

This was one of the city's fanciest hotels and her take-home pay is $202 a week. It was no wonder that her union, Local 25 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union had authorized a strike.

But money was not her main concern. Respect was.

"We get hassled a lot, about the way we clean, about wanting to take a break, about taking a holiday," said the maid, who is 60 years old. "I fear that we will lose the little ground we have gained."

A key issue in the dispute between hotel workers and owners is a proposal to increase the employes' share of health costs and a plan to cut first-year pay for new hires by 25 percent below the current pay scale.

Hotel maids and food service workers who make up the majority of union members now receive an average of $7 an hour.

On the other hand, hotel owners argue that they are suffering because of the 1980s hotel building boom. "We are in trouble. The industry is in deep trouble, and we have statistics to show it," said Peter Chatilovicz, chief negotiator for the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C. "I hope the union understands that we are not crying wolf" and are "serious about holding down labor costs."

Yet to hold down costs, some owners require vacationing hotel workers to return to the hotel each week to pick up their paychecks. Some owners require their employes to use bathrooms in the hotel basement, and employes claim that they are sometimes intimidated into not taking breaks.

If they miss work because of illness, they are required to bring a written excuse from their doctors.

Hotel owners are offering about a 2 percent increase in wages and benefits, but when certain benefit improvements are subtracted, according to the union, the hotel offer amounts to a 2-cent hourly raise. This is ridiculous.

But again, the way hotel service workers are treated is just as important as the money they receive. It is a shame to see grown women ordered about as if they were children.

"They are always watching us, checking up behind us. Making a fuss," the woman said of her supervisors. "They treat us like we are worthless."

A hotel strike would hit the local industry at its busiest time of the year.

"Personally, I wish we wouldn't have to take it that far," the housekeeper said. "But there is a certain amount of dignity that is involved."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and advocate for the homeless Mitch Snyder echoed that theme of self-worth during one of the hotel worker rallies, and drew astounding applause. Hotel workers say they no longer intend to be the invisible servants of the city, getting little pay and less respect.

The hotel owners have their points--the industry does have its financial troubles. But the workers have an even bigger and better point, that they deserve to be treated like human beings.

The housekeeper went about her daily duties like a professional. In time, the mirrors were shining, the toilet was spotless and the sheets and towels bright and clean.

"It's an honest living," she said with a smile. "I don't mind the job."

And the hotel industry shouldn't mind dealing with its employes honestly, either. After all, it is on the basis of treating people with respect that the city is attempting to bring the next Democratic National Convention to its hotels.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.