If you’re staying at a Marriott hotel, you may be asked to participate in Marriott’s “Make a Green Choice” or “Your Room, Your Choice” program and skip housekeeping for an incentive like loyalty points. Marriott says “Green Choice” is for the environment –but zero leading environmental studies recommend skipping housekeeping. When a room goes days without cleaning, housekeepers report having to use more water and chemicals to get the job done.
The truth is that Marriott’s “Green Choice” program hurts housekeepers. When there are fewer rooms to clean, there’s less work for housekeepers–who lose the wages and benefits their families need. And a room that’s gone days without service is so much dirtier and harder to clean that housekeepers report serious pain and injury as a result of cleaning “Green Choice” rooms. Hurting workers doesn’t help the environment. Climate leaders like Sierra Club reject “Green Choice” because job cuts disguised as a sustainability measure aren’t going to solve the challenge of climate change, and when companies engage in this kind of “greenwashing,” it undermines trust in proven environmental programs.
UNITE HERE, the union representing Marriott workers, is asking its labor friends and community allies to:
Sign the pledge — Refuse Green Choice and call for a sustainability program that does not hurt women workers by signing UNITE HERE’s pledge as an individual or on behalf of your union.
Reject “Green Choice” at your events — If your union or organization holds meetings at Marriott properties, refuse “Green Choice” on behalf of your attendees. Insist that Marriott not offer the program to your individual attendees at the front desk, in the hotel rooms, or in any other location. See suggested language to “refuse Green Choice” in your event contracts with Marriott.
Contact your individual members — Urge them to sign the pledge and to refuse Green Choice when booking work or non-work travel. Click here for sample emails to members.
Send a letter to Marriott — on behalf of your federated body letting them know you support workers and will decline the Green Choice program on behalf of all your attendees at any of your future conventions. See a sample letter.
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