Maria Fernandez worked three near-minimum wage jobs at Dunkin’ Donuts in Northern New Jersey. Like many low-wage workers, she spent a lot of time shuttling between jobs, dozing in her car between shifts. On Aug 25, Fernandez settled in for a nap in the parking lot outside one of her jobs and never woke up. A gas can in her trunk had spilled and the fumes suffocated her as she slept. She was 32. 

Sleep deprivation is a major social problem in the United States at large, and low-income Americans are especially hard-hit. Half of people in households with incomes below $30,000/yr report sleeping less than 6 hours a night. Lack of sleep increases the risk of accidents and exacerbates many chronic health problems.

[Photo credit: Jeepersmedia, Creative Commons.]

Former First Lady of California, Maria Shriver decided to stick up for the beleaguered housekeeping staff at the nation’s hotels…by launching a campaign encouraging hotel patrons to tip housekeeping. The campaign is called “The Envelope, Please.”

Of course you should tip! But it’s hardly a prescription for economic justice.

The pro-tip campaign seems especially tone deaf at a time when hotel workers in Los Angeles are gearing up to fight for a $15/hr living wage. 

Barbara Ehrenreich of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project takes Shriver to task for her tepid attempt to help the help:

But she chose to take a strangely sideways, almost timid, approach. Instead of getting the hotel’s CEO on the phone and inquiring politely why housekeepers aren’t paid a living wage – which is something that I imagine a centi-millionaire world-class celebrity could easily do – she launched a campaign to get hotels to encourage their guests to leave tips in their rooms. All the hotel has to do is place an appropriately labeled “gratitude envelope” on the bedside table. The initiative, called “The Envelope Please,” drew immediate support from the Marriott hotel chain, which employs about 20,000 housekeepers in North America.

A little solidarity from a woman of Shriver’s wealth and influence would go a lot farther than a guilt trip for freeloading hotel guests.

[Photo Credit: Kevin Dooley, Creative Commons.]

The best of the week’s news

• Rank-and-file railroad workers score a major victory.

• To get more out of science, publish the failures and the successes.

• Agree or disagree, Ezekiel Emanuel’s essay, “Why I Hope to Die at 75,” is thought-provoking.

• Who voted “Yes”?: Crunching the numbers on the Scottish referendum on independence.

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

Video from “Your Shirt Off Their Backs,” last Thursday’s panel on sweatshops, labor, and the global economy, is now available! Watch highlights from the event, shot and produced by Marc Bussanich of LaborPress. (Click the frame-shaped button on the bottom right corner of the video to watch in full-screen mode.)

Marc’s write-up of the event is available here.

View a slideshow of the event, featuring panelists New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, Judy Gearhart of the International Labor Rights Forum, Jeff Hermanson of Workers United/SEIU; and moderator Anna Burger. Photos by Marc Bussanich and Andrew Hill of the NYS Comptroller’s Office.