by Vince Chelena, CAHA Executive Director

While the two political sides pat themselves on the backs for a high profile standoff over a Republican National Convention scheduled to be in Charlotte later this summer, I’m giving voice to a group of workers in our industry rarely heard, seen, or thought of by those in power. The media, the politicians, and yes, even our industry, talks about tourism and hospitality as “the hotels” and “the restaurants”. It’s time we look inside the buildings and talk about the people who make our attractions, destinations, and businesses work.

These essential workers are restaurant servers and cooks who arrive at work in the wee hours of the morning to prepare meals for our guests. They are the front desk clerks in our hotels who are the faces of our hotels around the clock. They are also waiters, attendants in our parking lots, bartenders, hotel housekeepers, drivers, and bellhops, a job that gave me entrance into an industry that has defined my professional life to this day.

I started my career in 1979 as a hotel bellman in Atlanta that paid a minimum wage plus tips — tips that put food on my table when I was fortunate enough to get 40 hours of work. However, if it was slow in the city, I was lucky to get by on 20 hours. Bigger events meant hotel doors were swinging open, and I was shuttling more bags to and from hotel rooms, and saving for the lean weeks.

There are 141,000 hospitality employees in the greater Charlotte area, including the surrounding counties. All were counting on our political leaders to bring a $250 million political convention to our area, but they were failed miserably by the politicians and now face a week in August that will be a lot harder to make ends meet.

I understand the debate over the RNC in Charlotte is more than just economics. The health and safety of our community, and these workers, is worthy of a robust debate. However, it was my sincere hope that the politicians would come to the table, put these hardworking employees’ economic interests as a priority in negotiations, and get a deal worked out.

As the political pundits list winners and losers of this disagreement over the RNC, I contend there are no real winners, and at least 141,000 losers .

This former bellman encourages both political sides to make this right and to get these workers a win.