Got Slavery?: Five Hotel Corporations Exposed (1)

Chicago Midway International Airport

                                                    
Got SLAVERY in the 21^st Century? Between May of this year to date, I spent countless hours at the hotels comprising the Midway Hotel Center, located less than a mile from Midway Airport at 6520 S. Cicero, Bedford Park, IL 60638. These hotels are the following:

1. Chicago Marriot Midway

2. Courtyard Chicago Midway Airport

3. Fairfield Inn & Suites Chicago Midway Airport

4. Residence Inn Chicago Midway Airport

5. Hampton Inn Chicago Midway Airport

6. Hilton Garden Inn Midway Airport

7. Holiday Inn Midway Airport

8. Holiday Inn Express Midway Airport

9. Sleep Inn Midway Airport

[Hyatt Place – opening soon] 

Additional relevant experience at:
-Grand Hyatt San Antonio

In all, five hotel corporations are represented:

Marriot International, Inc.,
Hyatt Hotels Corporation,
Hilton Worldwide,
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, and
Choice Hotels.

All of the nine are managed by White Lodging Service Corporation (www.whitelodging.com).

The hours I spent at these hotels were initially at the Starbucks Café in one of the hotels. I stayed in the café and then one day, I purchased some coffee and moved out into the hotel lobby. It was there that I noticed personnel from outside business entities using the hotel facilities to conduct employment interviews and/or use the Internet without being hotel guests. I then thought that I too could use their Internet to continue in my job search and to conduct my online phone interviews. I had Internet access simply by being in range of it and clicking on a link. Accessing the Internet at some hotels was more direct; front desk personnel gave me the access codes. It was during my job search that I happened to observe numerous scenarios (both directly and indirectly). Now I was not searching for a job only, I was being drawn more and more into the culture of the hotel industry. I have prior experience related to the Grand Hyatt in San Antonio, Texas and this was an added opportunity to observe the culture of four additional hotel corporations—all concentrated across the border from Chicago in Bedford Park, IL, in other words, two blocks away from my mother’s house. It was an opportunity to better understand hotel culture as I continued the processes of my present-day job search. To protect the identity of employees, I do not use their real names or give them fake names. Instead, I have structured the scenarios into numbered events. The numbering is only to refer to the events and in no way constitutes sequential order. With each individual event, I coalesce analyses and offer questions for thought and discussion. My aim is to answer my initial question whether slavery still exists in the United States.