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Jamaican
Women Speak of Hotel Fiasco |
Pat and Claudia - not their real names - say through their local Members of Parliament, they respectively secured interviews for the jobs. According to Claudia, who hails from Clarendon, she filled out a form and provided two recommendations mid last year. She says she was then asked to attend an interview in the island's capital, Kingston. Two to four weeks later, in the summer of 2000, Claudia says she was asked to pay $JA 2,300 into a bank account. Days later, following a pregnancy test and a medical examination, the Jamaican national says she was requested to pack her bags and meet at the airport. Once there she says, she joined several others in the wait to secure the pre-approved work visas.
Hours later, Claudia says they boarded an Air Jamaica flight to Miami. Once there she says, the entire party boarded a Grey hound bus bound for their final destination, the Beau Rivage Hotel in Biloxie, Mississippi.
"In all it took us two days and a night on the bus," said Claudia, adding that once they got to the hotel, they were greeted by white supervisors who subsequently assigned them to rooms and apartments.
"We were assigned two per room, four per apartment," said Claudia. "And we were told to take the rest of the week off (since it was close to weekend) and report on Monday with our passports."
Claudia said the entire group of new immigrants were placed on a two week training program. Upon completion, she says things became tense when the first pay check was issued.
"On my check there was $US30, while some other girls had $5 and $6," reminisced Claudia," who added that management had initially made it clear that the rate of pay was $7.45 per hour.
"We got upset and started reacting, and then they gave us $100 more," she added.
But then Claudia says the work schedule increased rapidly. "I had 14 rooms to clean every day," said Claudia. "These were Queen and King size rooms along with bathrooms and we were expected to finish all quickly between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. with just a 10 minutes break for lunch."
"No mops were given to us," she added. "So you had to go down on your knees, in each room and scour the floors."
After two weeks of "back-breaking" work Claudia says she became ill and decided to call it quits. Luckily for her, she says her sister lives here in New York, so she called her up.
Days later - without her paycheck and just the clothes on her back - Claudia says she boarded a flight to New York and decided to chalk the two weeks down to a bad experience. She says she never filed a complaint with the management or with the Jamaican government and is too afraid to consider doing this for fear of being deported or worse.
Pat's story is similar in many respects to Claudia's, except that Pat stayed on the job for about a month before sickness also forced her to quit. Pat, a professional nurse by training, says she applied for the job and was approved following a test and a medical examination. Pat says she arrived in the United States last May and was assigned to clean 18 rooms per day, along with suites.
She said that, along with other Caribbean nationals, she was forced to work long hours at "terrific speed," for barely minimal wages.
"I would get to a room, say round 2 p.m. and by 2:10 p.m. the supervisor would already be there rushing me and asking if I wasn't done yet," said Pat.
She also told of being forced to scour the bathroom floors on hands and knees, until her back ached and she had difficulty walking. Pat said that's when she made the decision to leave the job. She was met at the airport she says, by her brothers, who expressed shock at the amount of weigh she had lost as well as the difficulty she had in walking. Pat said she was taken to a local hospital where she was advised to take three weeks of bed rest for the aches and pain in her lower back. Pat too has never filed any complaints.
She says many other Jamaican women between ages 18-30 left with her at the time, but several returned to Jamaica while others relocated to areas throughout the United States. She added that nationals from Trinidad and Barbados were also employed at the hotel but Jamaicans constitute the largest percentage. Several worked in the laundry room as well as in the kitchen, said Pat, adding that a large number of Mexican immigrants are also employed by the hotel.
But she summed up her experience in one sentence: "It was like modern day slavery."
Asked to respond to the allegations made by the two women, a spokesman for Hotel Beau Rivage requested that questions be faxed to his attention, but up to press time, no response was received. The hotel itself invites visitors to "Experience The Good Life On The Gulf Coast," on its website. Rooms are advertised as luxuriously elegant while the dining menu features international cuisine.
Meanwhile, O'Neil Hamilton, an information attache with the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, D.C., says the office cannot comment on the allegations unless the women plan to pursue a law suit or are willing to go on record and sign an affidavit detailing their experience.
Both women, after consultation with relatives, declined to go this route, citing fear as the major factor. The two are currently living undocumented in the United States and are fearful that should they pursue any civil action against the hotel, they would be deported.