Thread: Health spa to let ‘foreign-born adults’ take free dip in hot

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Boycott with benefits: Health spa to let ‘foreign-born adults’ take free dip in hot tub

By BARBARA FERRY | The New Mexican
April 27, 2006

Many immigrant advocates plan to join a nationwide boycott and work stoppage in support of legalization Monday. Some businesses will stay closed, while others have warned their immigrant employees they will lose their jobs if they skip work.

But Santa Fe might be the only place where a business is offering immigrants a free soak in a hot tub.

Ten Thousand Waves, a Japanese-style health spa that offers luxury treatments such as the Flowing River Stone Massage and a special facial using purified nightingale droppings, will give "foreign-born adults" free access to its two communal tubs Monday.

And you don't need a passport to get in. Kris Michaelis, human-relations director of the spa, said front-desk staff will admit anyone for free who "self-declares" themselves an immigrant. "We're teasingly saying that all you have to bring is your accent," she said.

Admission to the tubs usually costs $15, though locals get 20 percent off on weekdays, regardless of where they were born.

The spa is also offering its foreign-born employees a free 25-minute massage during the month of May. And on Monday, U.S-born staff will cook and serve its workers a luncheon of grilled hot dogs and apple pie.

Michaelis said the spa wants to show its appreciation for its immigrant staff and make a political statement about the immigration debate.

"We felt there was quite a bit of negative movement in the country regarding immigrants," Michaelis said. "This is our way of showing our support for meaningful immigration reform."

Ten Thousand Waves employs about 100 people and has about 140 contractors who provide services ranging from massage to grounds maintenance, Michaelis said. She estimated about

50 employees are immigrants.

Claudia Veronica Flores, who supervises the bath house at the spa, is looking forward to her free rubdown. "Massages are very relaxing," the native of Aguascalientes, Mexico, said.

Flores, who met her husband, Aldair Guevera, the laundry supervisor at Ten Thousand Waves, while working at the spa, said the company differs greatly from those in Las Vegas, Nev., where she previously lived.

"There, if you're Latino, they send you to housekeeping, but here, you have opportunities for advancement," she said. "Duke (Klauck, the spa owner) always supports us."

On April 10, the day after a pro-immigrant rally in Santa Fe, several immigrant-owned businesses were closed, and some south-side schools reported high absenteeism.

The Monday boycott comes with more advanced planning and after well-publicized raids in some cities on companies that employ undocumented immigrants. Some advocates are not supporting a work stoppage, saying it might provoke a backlash.

In some areas of the country, immigrants were fired after skipping work to attend rallies in April, according to The New York Times.

But a backlash seems unlikely in liberal Santa Fe, where some business owners said they will close their businesses in solidarity with their immigrant employees.

Harry Shapiro, owner of Harry's Roadhouse, said he sent a memo to his workers asking them what they wanted to do. "Virtually all of them said they didn't want to work on Monday," Shapiro said, so he decided to keep his restaurant closed that day.

Shapiro said he plans to spend the day at Franklin Miles Park, where the immigrant-advocacy group Somos Un Pueblo Unido is planning a "Worker's Day" family picnic with food and music.

Somos director Marcela Díaz said the group got "a slew of phone calls" after the April 9 rally from people wanting to do something Monday.

Immigrants are worried that, despite a protracted debate, Congress will fail to pass a bill allowing them to become legal residents, Díaz said. Well-publicized workplace raids by immigration officers in some cities have sharpened support for a work stoppage and boycott, she said.

"People are incredibly frustrated," Díaz said. "We want to show that if we don't have political power, we certainly have some economic power."

Downtown, the Plaza Cafe and Pasqual's will also stay closed, while Eldorado Hotel is asking employees to give them advance notice if they wish to stay home Monday. So far the hotel, which employs more than 300 people, has had "fewer than a dozen" requests for the day off, according to human-resources director Michael Accunzo.

Darby McQuade, owner of Jackalope, a sprawling import business on Cerrillos Road, said he will stay open, but will give paid time off to workers who want to attend pro-immigrant events.

McQuade said he made the decision because he opposes a measure that would make undocumented immigrants felons. "I have families who are in their second generation working at Jackalope," McQuade said. "I spend time in their homes, and I don't see them as a menace, by any stretch."

Contact Barbara Ferry at 995-3817 or bferry@sfnewmexican.com.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry or both!
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I missed something. Now this is worth laughing about. I'd never want one of these facials no matter how free it is!

"a special facial using purified nightingale droppings"

I hope AMERICANS stop patronizing this spa. Let's see how
long they stay in business with illegals coming in to get
spa treatments. Yeah, right!!!

How backwards.

will give "foreign-born adults" free access to its two communal tubs Monday.

Just see what would happen if your business said it would provide preferential treatment for native-born adults.

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

will give "foreign-born adults" free access to its two communal tubs Monday.

Just see what would happen if your business said it would provide preferential treatment for native-born adults.

I agree but I'm still not getting into that hot tub. Can you say tuberculosis or worse?

Ewwwwwwwwww that's gross to get in a tub with that many people.....

EWW...

contracting third world diseases...yuck...although if they do it's what they deserve.

HAHAHA, I wonder how many of them will bring their children in so they can piss in the hot tubs and foul them up. I bet they'll end up doing several weeks worth of maintanence on those tubs after that day is over with which would put a big hurting on their profits which in turn would serve them right. I wouldn't want to be within a thousand miles of that place.

a special facial using purified nightingale droppings

Ewwwwww..... Can anyone say Avian Flu?

The spa uses "purified nightengale droppings"?
Call it what you like, but it is what it is.