It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make a bed. But some of the nation’s leading brainiacs — Harvard students — don’t know how, and they humbly accepted instruction on the subject yesterday from the experts: hotel maids. Click on the title to watch the video.
Frantically making an outdoor bed while a hotel maid taunted them via loudspeaker, dozens of America’s best and brightest took turns tucking, folding, and failing in front of a crowd of classmates outside Harvard Science Center on Monday.
“I did it once, and I’m already sweating,” said Alexis Lewandowski, a freshman studying economics. When she was done, the bed barely passed inspection.
Here at America’s intellectual epicenter, complicated algorithms are easier to find than a well-made bed. On Monday, a stunt organized by groups supporting a unionization push at a Harvard-owned hotel near the Charles River challenged all who happened by to prove that they could still make good on mom’s old request: Make the bed for once.
Giving lessons and occasional grief was Emma Perdomo, a 10-year employee of the Hilton DoubleTree Suites hotel, who was among the workers there who inquired about unionizing in March 2013. The university declined to get involved or to guarantee a fair process for a vote, and the disagreement has been simmering ever since.
A university spokeswoman forwarded a letter leaving the labor decision to Hilton, which manages the hotel; DoubleTree by Hilton is one of several brands under the Hilton Worldwide umbrella.
Every day, Perdomo, 54, makes about 30 beds like the one that showed up on a wooden platform in the middle of campus Monday.
In order: flat sheet, flat sheet, blanket, flat sheet, duvet. Tuck everything in so tight that a horse couldn’t kick its way out of bed, and you are done once you throw on the pillows. Do this less than once a year, and you’re a typical college student. “I’m gonna get back into it that night anyway,” explained Kareli Osorio, a freshman studying folklore and mythology. (Bed status on Monday at noon: unmade.) “I just throw the covers over,” said Lewandowski (unmade).
Donning gray hotel maid shirts, Lewandowski and her friend, Shantell Williams, worked up a legitimate sweat trying to get everything straight and tucked, though in fairness, few beds are set on platforms in the hot sun, surrounded by food trucks, gawkers, and the assembled media. Perdomo gave them a generous C+.
Like many of the future Masters of the Universe who happened by Monday, Lewandowski may not have to worry about making her own bed for long.
“I can build and investigate swarm optimization algorithms but I really don’t know how to make my bed,” said junior Alex Chen, who is a member of the Student Labor Action Movement, or SLAM, on campus.
“Too slow! Too slow!” Perdomo warned again. Over the course of about 90 minutes, one pair managed to earn a B from Perdomo, though she spent most of their session talking with a reporter and did not notice that they had totally blown it with the duvet cover.
On Monday, it was always the duvet cover, unless it was the sheets. Many hotels do not use fitted sheets, a cost-saving measure that streamlines inventory and laundry systems, and results in more even wear over time. But how to fold and tuck the various sheets requires its own optimization algorithm.
DoubleTree lobby worker Nelson Labor came to show solidarity with the cleaning workers. Watching Osorio with alternating exclamations of glee and horror, he finally lent a hand, explaining that the duvet actually goes inside the duvet cover.
Their ragged bed was finally made. “It’s good,” he lied. “It looks good.”
In an uncertain environment, training programs, not tips, represent the best hope for
the economic advancement of room attendants. Unite Here Local 26, which represents
the Boston area’s unionized hospitality workers, offers such training that enables
housekeepers to move into progressively better jobs at unionized hotels.
Mayor Martin Walsh joined members of Boston’s hospitality union, Local 26, and executives from several local hotels yesterday to celebrate the graduation of the first African-American hospitality training class from Local 26’s Best Corp Hospitality Training Center. At the event, Local 26 announced that the class would be named the “Mel King Empowerment Program” in honor of longtime community activist and former state legislator Mel King.
“I commend Local 26 hotel workers for standing up for fairness and equality for all of Boston’s residents,” Walsh said. “Together, the union and their hotel employer partners are making strides to ensure that people of color have access to life-changing career paths in the hotel industry.”
The class is a four-week “Intro to Hospitality” training that includes job shadowing at several of the best hotels in Boston. After graduates complete the class, Local 26 works with hotels to place graduates into hotel jobs.
“Union hotel jobs are good jobs, with low-cost full-coverage healthcare, high wages, and a pension,” said Brian Lang, President of Local 26. “We know that forming a partnership with the best hotel employers in New England to recruit, train and hire African Americans is good for the hospitality industry and is good for the neighborhoods of Boston. We’re proud to see members of the first graduating class start their union jobs this month.”
Local 26 negotiated diversity language into its contracts with 29 Boston area hotels after noticing a decline in African-American representation in the hospitality industry. Local 26’s “Best Corp Hospitality Training Center” coordinates with the hotels on a training class for African Americans.
“I’ve been a cook for more than 25 years, but it’s always been a struggle to make ends meet,” said Bobby Oliver, 49, a resident of Dorchester who graduated from the class last month. “During the hospitality training class, I was able to shadow employees at the Westin Waterfront, and now I’ve got an interview with the General Manager. Getting a union job with higher wages and benefits will really change the lives of my three kids.”
Local 26 represents 7,000 workers in the hospitality industries in the Greater Boston Area. Members include workers of hotels, restaurants, university dining services, the Boston Convention Centers, Fenway Park and Logan International Airport.
The training program is the central component of an effort by Unite Here Local 26, the hospitality workers’ union, to reach out to the African-American community to fill jobs that offer good wages and benefits. The initiative aims to expand the diversity of hotel workforces, increasingly dominated by immigrants, and meet the growing demand in the industry for employees who are fluent in English. Local 26 is taking a progressive approach to dealing with the economic disparities facing African-Americans, said Tito Jackson, a Boston councilor who used his connections with the black community to recruit trainees for the program.
“There is a very long history of African-American workers in that industry, but as of late we have seen a lot less,” he said. “This program is a workforce development and job-preparedness program that really gives people the skills, the confidence, as well as the opportunity to open the doors of jobs where they can take care of their family.”