Posted on: Sunday, October 28, 2001

The September 11 attack | Coping with the aftermath
Immigrants hit hard by travel industry layoffs

By Deborah Hong
Associated Press

Lupe Stevenson is one of more than 50 people laid off by the Santa Monica Loews Hotel. The Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union estimates more than 87,000 members have lost their jobs since Sept. 11. Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. — For years, Carlos Bolanos rose at 2 a.m. and drove to a downtown hotel to bake the croissants, coffee cakes and muffins that overnight guests enjoyed at breakfast.

But Bolanos reported to work one day this month and was told to turn in his locker key and uniform: Business had slowed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Bolanos, who worked his way up to become the hotel's head baker, was out of a job.

A soft-spoken, 39-year-old man from Guatemala, Bolanos now finds himself in the same tough spot as many other immigrants.

Americans have stayed close to home since the attacks, causing a downturn in the hotel business that has been particularly hard on immigrants in low-wage jobs, including cooks, maids and dishwashers. Living paycheck to paycheck, such workers can not afford long layoffs.

The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union estimates that more than 87,000 of its members across the country have lost their jobs since the Sept. 11 attacks. The majority of those people are immigrants, union officials believe.

Many come from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. When such a worker in the United States gets laid off, the ripple effect can spread to another country.

Lupe Stevenson lost her job as a banquet server at a waterfront hotel in Santa Monica, Calif. That means she can no longer afford to send the usual $300 every three months to her 19-year-old daughter attending college in Mexico.

The situation is even tougher for undocumented workers who entered the country illegally — and who can't receive unemployment benefits. Many are looking for jobs cleaning houses and as day laborers, said Kurt Petersen, organizing director for the hotel and restaurant employees local in Santa Monica, Calif.

Now relief centers and workshops for the unemployed — be they citizens, legal residents or undocumented immigrants — are sprouting up in cities across the country.

In Las Vegas, Local 226 of the hotel and restaurant workers' union, set up a tent in its parking lot.

About 10,000 people have visited in the past two weeks, clutching eviction notices and asking for help paying rent. They fill out unemployment forms and try to work out payment plans with power, telephone and water companies.

Lucy Cedeno, 42, is among the union volunteers there. Cedeno, who worked in a hotel casino making change for gamblers, lost her job Sept. 23.

Now she divides her days between volunteering, searching for a new job and pleading with her bank and credit card companies for alternate payment schedules.

"I have to tell them my problems," said Cedeno, who emigrated from Mexico. "I'm probably going to have to sell my house."