IN the spring of 1998 the San Francisco-based Hotel Employees/Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) Local 2 began preparations for contract negotiations. For many years room cleaners had complained of high rates of injuries and musculoskeletal disorders. The union was aware that many had undergone surgery and several had become permanently disabled. Believing that these injuries could be job related, the union leadership felt it was time to tackle this problem and find ways to protect their members’ health and safety.
Although the hospitality industry employs roughly 1.7 million workers in 43,000 establishments nationwide, very little health research has been conducted on this sector (1,2). HERE concluded that they needed original research which would look at workload, health, and employee/employer relationship issues. Traditionally, collaborations between universities and community organizations such as unions arise from the interests and priorities of the academic partners, not the community organizations. In addition, the selection of research methods and design is usually considered within the domain of the academics.
This study took a non-traditional path, with the union initiating the partnership and defining the research priorities and methods. The union looked to UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) to serve as an intermediary with university-based researchers at UC’s School of Public Health (SPH). The union also asked LOHP to direct the project as a whole. This was necessary since the union had no prior experience in working with academic-based researchers. However, union leadership was comfortable with LOHP because of its strong standing with labor and successful track record in facilitating joint labor-management initiatives around issues of health and safety. The union asked LOHP to build a team that included SPH researchers who could apply participatory action research methods and involve workers in all phases of the project.
English PDF: https://lohp.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/hotelwork99.pdf
