Five-Star Employees

 Edwina, a refugee from Liberia, takes time out from her job as a housekeeper at the Seelbach Hotel to pose for a photo with her supervisors.

   Many refugees, particularly women, work as housekeepers, laundry workers, banquet servers and other positions in Louisville's growing hotel industry.  The links below explore from several aspects the impact of refugees on this important sector of our local economy.
   These photos (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4) show two Somali Bantu women receiving pre-employment training at Kentucky Refugee Ministries to prepare themselves for their new housekeeping jobs at the Hilton Garden Inn.
   For Cuban refugee Yarima Gonzalez, who arrived in Louisville in 2002, her first job as a housekeeper served as a stepping stone to a supervisory position, and underlined the importance of continuing her education.  She contributed this article to the Fall 2004 edition of inSpirit, KRM's newsletter.
   On a less positive note, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of four Somali Bantu refugee women accusing a downtown hotel of unlawful religious discrimination.  The women claim they were denied housekeeping positions after refusing to remove their traditional Muslim head scarves as a condition of employment.