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Chinese Hotel Workers Still Fuming Over English-Only Remark
News Report, Eugenia Chien,
New California Media, Aug 23, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hotel housekeepers at the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental say they have not received a satisfactory response after they complained in July that a manager forbid them from speaking Cantonese at work. Local union representatives have been negotiating with hotel management since July 22 and are waiting for the hotel’s investigation of the incident.

“We are demanding a clear, unequivocal apology, posted in the hotel for all the workers to see,� says Anand Singh, representative from San Francisco’s Local 2 union. “The hotel needs to take action to demonstrate that this will never happen again.�

One of the most well-known hotels in San Francisco, the Mark Hopkins is a historic 380-room hotel on top of Nob Hill.

According to five housekeepers at the hotel, they were chatting in Cantonese on the morning of July 1 before their shift began. Their manager then told them that they cannot speak Cantonese at work.

The housekeepers allege that the manager, Maria Campbell, said, “Don’t speak Chinese. Speak English. Be polite.�

“We were really taken back,� says Mei Lan, a room cleaner who has worked at the hotel for more than eight years. “At first, we were so shocked that we just didn’t say anything to her.�

But other English-speaking employees at the scene encouraged the housekeepers to complain to the union and the hotel.

“Initially, we didn’t want to get in any trouble,� says Jiang Biyi, a hotel employee for four years. “But other workers told us that this is illegal.�

Establishing an English-only policy can be illegal in the workplace, according to Helen Chen, an attorney at the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco. If a rule requires employees to speak only English at all times, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) considers the rule in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. An English-only rule that only applies at certain times must be justified by business necessity, according to the EEOC.

“There is no way that Mark Hopkins can argue that the English-only rule is a business necessity,� Chen says. “The housekeepers were being unfairly targeted.�

Because they are supported by a union contract, the workers say that they don’t think they will be fired for speaking Cantonese. “[The manager] doesn’t have the power to fire us over this,� says Lan, “but still, this is unfair.�

Other housekeepers agree. “We do this kind of work because our language ability is not good, but we’re being discriminated precisely because of our language abilities,� Jiang says.

Housekeepers at the hotel say that they feel more comfortable conversing in Cantonese. The housekeepers have minimal interaction with hotel guests. At the time that they were told to stop speaking Cantonese, the housekeepers were still on break.

The housekeepers also contend that they had previous run-ins with Campbell over room inspections. They complained to the hotel’s human resource department, but they said that things did not improve.

Local union representatives have brought the case to the EEOC, the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission and the San Francisco Human Rights commission.

Out of the 40 housekeepers at the hotel, 36 are Cantonese-speaking.

The general manager of the hotel, Campbell Black, said in a written statement, “We do not have a policy that prevents employees from speaking their native language.� Black said that the hotel hires employees of all nationalities and encourages diversity in the workplace.

The hotel has declined to comment on how they will respond to the workers’ demands. Connie Perez, the media spokesperson for the hotel, says that she is not aware of any settlement plans. Hotel management met with union representatives several times last week to negotiate on the matter.

Although the hotel does not have an official English-only policy, it can still be sued because it is responsible for the actions of its manager or supervisors, says Joannie Chang, director of employment and labor projects at the Asian Law Caucus.

English-only policies have been a controversial legal issue. In 2001, the EEOC settled a landmark $2.44 million lawsuit against the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, on behalf of Hispanic housekeepers who were subject to an English-only policy at work.