The recent wave of high-profile sexual harassment charges has put powerful industries like media and entertainment under increased scrutiny. But five years ago, a local union managed to negotiate new sexual assault protections in the hotel industry, which isn't often in the spotlight.
In 2011, the then-head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was charged with sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper during a stay in midtown Manhattan. The prosecutors ultimately dropped the case, but Rich Maroko, executive vice president of the hotel workers’ union, said it was a wake-up call.
"A lot of us here in the union were surprised and a little appalled to learn how prevalent this sort of attack is in hotels," he said.
In 2012, the union negotiated a new contract with the hotel industry, which included a requirement to provide employees with panic buttons. Now around 10,000 hotel room attendants carry this small electronic device. They can use it if they’re in danger of being sexually harassed or assaulted by guests.
"I feel much more safer," said Betty Rice, who’s worked as a room attendant in a midtown hotel for the past 19 years.
She knows that if she presses her panic button, hotel security will immediately be notified of her exact location. And Rice says that puts her mind at ease.
"Because when you’re frightened, [that] doesn’t always mean you’re going to say 'I’m on the 14th floor,'" she said. "You’re screaming 'I need help'. But with the panic button, once you press it, they’re already alert to where you [are].”
Union officials say they’re currently trying to negotiate similar protections for workers in other parts of New York and in New Jersey.