For Maria Perez, her job as a hotel housekeeper at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is key to raising her five children, ages three to 20, and encouraging them to go to college.

"From this job depends the well-being of my family," said Perez, 39, in her soft-spoken Spanish. "We all have dreams to see our children get ahead, to have a better future."

To provide for her family Perez will clean about 15 rooms during a typical eight-hour shift. She'll make up to 30 beds, clean 22 bathrooms, restock towels and supplies, vacuum the carpets, dust the furniture, polish the mirrors, and wash dirty glasses and coffee pots.

She's given about 30 minutes to clean each room -- a pace that keeps her rushing all day long. The nine-year veteran housekeeper is paid $11 an hour. On a good week she works 40 hours; when tourism is slower, her hours are cut back.

Her husband Jose Arellano works as a parking attendant, and while he earns less per hour, his schedule is more stable and fixed at 40 hours. Together the husband and wife team, parishioners at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles, strive to make ends meet, pay $1,200 monthly rent on their three-bedroom Echo Park apartment, and settle the tuition fees and cost of books for two children in community college, Maria, 20 and Jose, 18. Her other children Nancy, 16, and Leslie, 12, are in public school, and Elizabeth is just three.

"We save money on good weeks so we can pay for the bad weeks," said Perez.

The bad weeks may become more frequent. Perez, a unionized worker with Unite Here, had hoped that the union and hotel employers could negotiate a contract that would increase her wages and address workload issues. But after protracted and contentious contract negotiations, the nine hotels have declared an impasse on various issues, and workers voted Sept. 13 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Conference Center to authorize the union to call a strike.

About 2,800 union workers currently are working without a contract, including servers, cooks, bartenders and housekeepers.

Anticipating a possible strike, Perez, a native of Mexico, said she at first felt despairing, but now is searching for a sense of calm. She's relying on her faith to find a reservoir of patience and puts her trust in God.

However, morale is low, said Perez, as managers chastise employees for not being more grateful to have jobs. There are others waiting for jobs like these, she said they are told.

Perez said she knows that workers at non-unionized hotels make significantly less. The union protects her from injustice, she added. "You have someone who can defend you and can represent you," said Perez.

She's prepared to join the picket lines if need be, and she and her husband will borrow money from relatives to get by.

While speaking in her living room, a stuffed white bear sporting a blue graduation cap, sits perched on a shelf. It is a reminder to Perez, her husband and their children of their long-term resolve to pursue education for the family and secure a better future.

"I want my children to have an easier life than myself. I want them to be understanding people, to remember where they come from, and to not forget to help others," said Perez.

She added that archdiocesan parishioners can offer hotel workers the support they'll need to face the challenges ahead: "Give them a word of spirit and courage to keep going. Let them know they are not alone and to have patience. Together we can succeed."

More News About the Los Angeles Hotel Workers' Struggle for a Fair Contract >>