Detroit Hotel Workers Picket For Higher Wages

DETROIT (WWJ) - Demonstrators have been marching outside the Crowne Plaza Ponchartrain hotel in downtown Detroit, saying they want to make certain no one drives down the wages of Detroit workers.

Heidi Hughes, Director of Local 24 of Unite Here, part of the Hospitality Workers Union, charges that Crowne Plaza room attendants — who work for a temporary job agency — are paid poverty-level wages.

"A room attendant here is making $8 an hour," said Hughes, who compared that rate to the rate paid at other high-end Detroit hotels.

"Room attendants at the Marriott make over $14 an hour; at the casinos, $17; at the Book Cadillac, around $12 an hour," Hughes said.

Hughes says the union's president has reached out to Crowne Plaza Ponchartrain management, hoping to set a meeting.

No meeting has yet taken place. Until one does, union protests are expected to continue.

Minimum wage is currently $7.40 an hour.