Hospitality Workers

Why is the hospitality INdustry important?

The Tourism and Hospitality Industry are directly tied to the success of Florida's economy. In 2018, an estimated 126.1 million out-of-state tourists visited our state, an increase for the eighth consecutive year. Due to this significant influx of yearly visitors, there is a substantial job market for hospitality workers in hotels, attractions, food services, custodial services, and housekeeping. According to the Department of Economic Opportunity, around 1.1 million of the total 9.1 million employed in Florida have jobs related to the tourism and hospitality industry as of 2015. Therefore, in order to support the rising tourism rates, it is important for the hospitality industry to reflect a similar rate of growth.

The emphasis on tourism is also evident in Pinellas County. In 2017, the county hosted an estimated 6.5 million visitors, making it the leading destination on the Gulf Coast. With the need to provide for those who come to visit, hospitality takes on an important role in ensuring that tourists continue to travel to this area. In 2019 in the month of September alone, 357,760 rooms were sold for overnight accommodation in the St. Pete/Clearwater area. Overall, this emphasizes how essential it is for a hotel to possess an adequate number of staff in order to provide quality services to all of their guests.

The Don Cesar Hotel

In order to gain a better understanding of the hospitality industry and the experience of its employees, we selected the Don CeSar Hotel of St. Pete Beach, due to the significance it holds to those in the Pinellas Gulf Beaches community.

The Don CeSar Hotel opened towards the end of the roaring 1920's as a getaway for the nation's elite. It was forced to close during the Great Depression and was eventually re-purposed as a hospital during WW2. It reopened as a hotel in 1973 due in part to an effort led by the local community, and it is currently a protected landmark.

Timeline of Important Dates throughout the Don Cesar's History:

1928:

Don Cesar opens

1942:

US army purchased the hotel to be used as a hospital

1973:

Don Cesar reopens as a hotel

2012:

Renovations complete

Interview 1

Karalyn Frady and Susan Owen are the Managers of Human Resources and Guest Experiences at the Don CeSar, respectively.

Karalyn Frady is a St. Pete native who from a young age experienced managing a local movie theater and serving guests as a front desk clerk. Karalyn started working at the Don CeSar 8 years ago as a part-time employee and has since risen through the ranks.

Susan Owen is a 5th generation Floridian who majored in Biology and Psychology. However, she found her true passion in North Carolina when she began working at a local hotel. When the hotel was sold, Susan was given the opportunity to transfer to the Don and has been here ever since.

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Staffing challenges in the hospitality Industry

In conversation with hotel management, we learned that the Don CeSar is experiencing a 10% deficit in staffing; their target number of staff to run most effectively is 400 team members, and they currently only employ 356 team people. The primary reasons for this gap are the difficulties due to the hotel's location, rising employment rates, and growing issues associated with hiring foreign workers due to enforced immigration policies. Overall, the lack of a full workforce has been found to negatively impact both the quality of a guests' experience and put a strain on the amount of work that is expected of the current hotel staff.

Difficulties due to location

One major challenge the Pinellas Gulf Beaches hospitality industry faces on a daily basis is transportation. As Karalyn stated, "So, our team members, you know who make minimum wage or just a few dollars above minimum wage can't necessarily afford their own car and they have to use public transit. Public transit in St. Petersburg is horrible and it just became a little worse because our locals did not want buses running at certain times so now we're even more limited or restricted on the busing system." Although carpooling has offered a temporary solution for some, it is often not a viable option for foreign workers with limited social circles in this area. As a result, situations where a worker "...can only come when the bus runs and it doesn't run on Tuesdays..." limits the ability of the hospitality industry to staff workers.

In addition, the Pinellas Gulf Beaches hospitality industry faces another location challenge due to it's distance from hospitality based colleges. There are three notable colleges nearby the St. Petersburg area: Eckerd College, the University of South Florida, and St. Petersburg College. However, only the latter offers a hospitality program; the other institutions have a low concentration of interested students. In addition, heavy traffic further decreases the available student population that can staff the Pinellas hospitality industry. As Susan mentioned, "...if they are already having difficulties... it would take half a day to get here..."

Declining uNEMPLOYMENT rATES

General Demographics:

Unemployment rate in US has fallen below 4 percent, leaving more than 6 million jobs vacant in mid-2018
As of September 2019, the unemployment rate in Florida is 3.2%

Demographics of the Pinellas Gulf Beaches

50.8% Labor Force Participation
47.5% Employment Rate
6.6% Unemployment Rate

Currently, Florida and the rest of the United States is experiencing very low unemployment. Low unemployment is often seen as an exclusively good thing, contributing to less poverty and a strong economy. However, this has an often unseen consequence concerning staffing in the hospitality industry.

The St. Pete Beach area is primarily home to older people who are mostly retired. This population is not accounted for in the employment demographics, so although there might be a 50.8% labor participation in the area, the remaining 49.2% may be unable or unwilling to work. Finding staff from this elderly population is difficult enough without having to account for the already low employment pool.

Karalyn Frady and Susan Owen shared with us the increasing difficulties associated with finding new employees to work in hospitality, particularly in culinary and housekeeping. With culinary, it is a matter of finding individuals that possess the necessary skills or a desire to learn them. With housekeeping, it requires people to be willing to work hard for a modest pay. Additionally, they spoke of how guests in recent years have become less likely to tip.

Because of this, the Don looks to hiring foreign workers to help supplant the small local workforce.

the decline of foreign workers due to immigration policy

The current administration has made it harder for foreign workers to come to the United States, and those who do can face circumstances that make it difficult to qualify for employment. For instance, to obtain work visas for foreign-born adults (H-B2), hotels like the Don CeSar must demonstrate they did everything possible to hire American workers first (EEOC). In addition, the cap for H-B2 visas increased from the previous year but had already reached its maximum number of applicants as of June 2019. To receive additional visas, the Department of Homeland Security requires businesses to show that without foreign workers, the business would likely suffer irreparable harm, such as permanent and severe financial loss. On the part of the worker, it can take 3 months or more to be approved for a H-B2 visa, but as of June 5, 2019 no more applications are being accepted. While student visas (J1) are easier to attain, many students seeking employment are looking primarily for leadership positions, not entry-level jobs such as housekeeping.

Potential solutions to promote growth in the hospitality industry

1. Automation:

What is automation?

Artificial intelligence and robotics used to improve customer experience and efficiency.

How is automation related to the hospitality industry?

Automation is growing in many industries and in hospitality specifically there are a few roles that could potentially be automated such as check-in and in-room services.

2. Unions

What are unions and what do they do?

A labor union is an association of workers in a specific company or industry that organize to form "bargaining units" which work to negotiate with company leaders to gain benefits for members.

Have unions always supported immigrant workers?

In the 1980's, labor unions were often anti-immigrant. Their main goal was to "protect American workers.” Today, labor unions understand all workers need protection no matter where their from or what language they speak. Unite Here! played an integral part in changing labor unions' perception of immigrants.

Are all labor unions the same?

No. Each labor union will lobby for what is in favor of their union population, industry, and focus. His union specifically focuses on workers receiving fair wages, great benefits, and equal treatment in the hospitality industry.

*For better quality, please use head phones.

Interview 2

Eric Clinton is the President of Chapter 362 of Unite Here! -- a union mainly servicing Disney workers in the Orlando area.

Eric Clinton has been a Central Florida native since his third grade enrollment. Around the age of 17, he entered the hospitality industry as a part-time Disney employee. After 4 years of first-hand experience, Eric became the union organizer for Unite Here! and has continued to invoke positive change for union members for 18 years now.

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Differing Opinions on Florida Unions

Perspective 1: Karalyn Frady and Susan Owen

Frady and Owen feel that labor unions in St. Pete Beach were mostly unnecessary as hospitality industry treats its employees with enough respect to not warrant the formation of a union. Due to lack of available work force as a result of low unemployment the industry has to treat its workers well to retain them. They maintain that Don Cesar employees are content with the treatment they receive and are given no need by management to unionize.

Perspective 2: Eric Clinton

Clinton feels personally connected to unions because he was treated unfairly at his previous hospitality position and joining a union helped him address his situation in a powerful way. Unions are incredibly relevant. Unite Here! represents over 300,000 U.S. & Canada workers, predominately in hotels, casinos, and food service operations, higher education, airports, and many other business & industries. Unions are necessary because they force employers to address workers' concerns. Employers and unions negotiate contracts that guarantees wage increases, affordable insurance, vacation time, etc. It also protects workers from unfair or unequal disciplinary measures.

Future Directions for the HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY OF THE Pinellas GULF BEACHES

Automation is not the way to go:

Currently automated technology is not at a level where they would be a preferable option to using a human worker. Automation also threatens human workers by potentially costing them jobs and are thus is opposed by the union. Both interview subjects swiftly concluded that automation is not beneficial to workers or employers as it currently functions.

Unions may be the answer:

Mr. Clinton mentioned that unemployment rates are so low that almost everyone that wants a job has one, but the need for hospitality workers is only increasing as the number of tourists continue to break the prior year's record. In a places such as St. Pete Beach where there is not a large working age population (the median age is 58.2), foreign workers can fill the gap in employment. This problem with staffing could be addressed by easing the process by which foreign workers can gain access to the country to work. Based our interviews and the example of the case provided by Mr. Clinton, we believe that unions can help staff local hotels by lobbying for legislation in favor of foreign workers.

As we mentioned, current immigration policy is affecting foreign workers on our beaches. A lot of hospitality workers in our area are Haitian; however, their right to stay in the country is at risk. TPS was afforded to Haitians after the 2010 earthquake and up to a year thereafter. This means that any Haitian immigrant with protected status has been in the U.S. since at least early 2011. Many of these individuals have started their careers, created their families, and consider America their homes. At the time of our interview, we discovered that the renewal deadline for TPS of Haitian immigrants was January 2020 and if the government allowed it to expire Haitians would be here unlawfully. Unite Here! filed a lawsuit challenging four TPS terminations for Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Sudan. The case was heard in the United States District Court in the Northern District of California. U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen ruled in favor of Unite Here! and in doing so blocked the Trump administration from terminating the TPS program which would harm more than 300,000 immigrants. It has since been announced that TPS for these four nations have been extended until 2021 as a result of the injunction. This story is a testament to a union’s ability to not only influence business practices but also our nation’s ever changing immigration policy.

Photos from our tour of the don cesar

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