We stand with hotel housekeepers. As the current moment sheds light on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and assault throughout countless professions, we join together with solidarity and with shared experience to support the women of Seattle’s hospitality industry.

Hotel housekeepers are predominantly immigrant women and women of color who work for low wages at great risk: in Seattle, 53 percent have reported experiencing sexual harassment or assault on the job. Through their leadership, voters passed an initiative in November 2016 to combat through law exactly the types of behavior now garnering national attention and outcry. The Seattle Hotel Employees Health and Safety Ordinance shows that it is possible to craft public policies that support women, embrace our values, and offer workers genuine recourse to respond to harassment and assault.

Unfortunately, these policies are disputed, and employers have attacked Seattle’s law in order to maintain their own power and to silence the women who work for them.