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FORTUNE.COM // MAY.1.19
technology so they can raise any concerns.
The Marriott agreement highlights how
unions are increasingly pushing to protect
employees from the unrelenting march of
technology into the workplace. Recently,
casino workers and even professional basket-
ball players have negotiated contracts that
dictate terms like retraining workers who are
displaced by technology and limiting how
businesses can use data they collect about
employees from their devices.
Corporations have said little publicly about
the phenomenon. Marriott, for example,
declined to comment beyond a statement that
it has since modified its housekeeping app so
that employees have more control over their
daily work assignments. “It is customary for
us to work with our associates and solicit feed-
back when implementing new procedures at
our hotels,” Marriott said.
Matthew Scherer, a lawyer who specializes
in technology for law firm Littler Mendelson,
which represents corporations in labor
matters, says that most businesses are
oblivious to employees’ increasing worries
about tech. When talking with corporate
clients, Scherer says he recommends that
they take worker misgivings seriously so
that managers can address them before they
A FEW YEARS AGO, MARRIOT T debuted a new app at hotels in
five cities that was supposed to save housekeepers time
by telling them which rooms to clean. It was a disaster.
Housekeepers ended up yo-yoing between rooms on different
floors, ignoring messy rooms just down the hall. If anything, the
cleaners felt that the app made them less efficient, and they wor-
ried about being disciplined by their bosses for failing to finish
their work on time. “A wild-goose chase” is how Rachel Gumpert,
a spokeswoman for Unite Here, the labor union that represents
Marriott’s housekeepers, describes the episode.
Several months after the union became aware of the prob-
lems the app was causing, Marriott’s hotel workers went on
strike, partly because of new technologies like the housekeep-
ing app. In December, after intense negotiations, the hotel
workers won a remarkable concession—a new contract that re-
quires management to tell them 150 days in advance about new
WHEN TECH AND
L ABOR COLLIDE
As technology pushes deeper into the workplace,
some employees are pushing back. By Jonathan Vanian
TECH
ELIO BENVENUTI
—ALINARI VIA GET T Y IM
AGE
