No Super Bowl Payoff for Hyatt Housekeepers
 |
In a radio ad airing on Indianapolis-area stations during Super Bowl week, UNITEHERE! reminds listeners one of the first things many young NFL players do after signing a first contract is “buy their mom a house, or build her a new kitchen or let her retire.”
Many NFL players were raised by moms who cleaned houses, cleaned hotels or cleaned both. We all have a special place in our heart for the women of Indianapolis who do that work.
The commercial (click here to listen) to raise awareness about hardworking hotel housekeepers is airing at the same time housekeepers at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis are fighting to keep their jobs and boost their poverty-level pay at a hotel where rates can be more than $1,000 a night for a room during Super Bowl week.
Last month after area hotel workers filed a federal lawsuit alleging wage and hour violations against Hyatt subcontractor Hospitality Staffing Solutions (HSS) and 10 downtown hotels, including the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, Hyatt announced that it would cut ties with HSS, according to UNITEHERE .
Hyatt Seeks to Slash Chicago Workers’ Health Care
Since 2009, more than 1,500 employees of four Hyatt hotels in Chicago have been fighting for a fair contract. Now the company is threatening to strip away their health coverage if they don’t abandon their fight and call off their boycotts.
Represented by UNITEHERE! Local 1, the workers have stood firm on demands to curb subcontracting and ease working conditions for housekeepers—demands met by Hilton and other Chicago hotel employers.
Christian Toro, a Hyatt banquet server, says: Read the rest of this entry »
Hyatt Workers on Strike in Four Cities
Thousands of Hyatt hotel workers in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu walked out this morning, striking for a fair contract at their own hotels and to take a stand against Hyatt’s poor treatment of hotel workers in cities across the country.
You can tell Hyatt to treat workers with respect. Click here to send a letter to Hyatt management demanding that they treat housekeepers fairly and with respect. Click here to send a message of solidarity to the strikers. If you live in one of the cities where workers are on strike, you can click here to join a picket line.
Cathy Youngblood, a Hyatt housekeeper in Los Angeles, says:
I’m picketing today because I don’t mind working hard but I won’t be abused. I believe in hard work but living in pain is a different story. I have to take medication regularly because my wrists and shoulders hurt from having to lift mattresses to change the sheets. Since I started working at the Hyatt my quality of life has diminished greatly. Hyatt must stop abusing housekeepers.
Rabbis Declare Hyatt ‘Not Kosher’
A group of 21 rabbis and other community faith leaders have declared several Hyatt hotels to be “not kosher” and have vowed to avoid the hotels until they provide decent wages and safe conditions for all their workers, expecially housekeepers.
Meanwhile, in California, pressure is building on the giant hotel chain to drop its opposition to legislation that would require companies to adopt a few common-sense practices to protect housekeepers from getting hurt.
The bill would require California hotels to provide housekeepers with fitted sheets (so housekeepers don’t have to lift 100-pound mattresses to tuck the bottom sheets underneath) and mops (so they don’t have to scrub bathroom floors by hand).
Hotel Housekeepers Protest Hyatt
Thousands of hotel workers protested Thursday at Hyatt hotels in nine cities. UNITEHERE! says Hyatt is abusing housekeepers by cutting jobs, replacing experienced employees with minimum wage temporary workers and imposing dangerous workloads on the remaining housekeepers.
Vote for Who ‘Scrooged’ Workers the Most in JwJ’s Scrooge of the Year Contest
 |
|
The nominations are in and there are seven great—let’s rephrase that—mean, nasty, heartless candidates for the dishonor of winning Jobs with Justice’s (JwJ‘s) Scrooge of the Year contest.
Now in its11th year, the contest highlights the CEO, corporation or politician who has done the most to “scrooge” workers in the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge before three ghosts scared the you-know-what out of him and he saw the error of his ways. But such a transformation is not likely from these Scrooge nominees.
Take a look at a short description of each, then click here for more details on their dastardly deeds and to vote for your Scrooge. The results will be announced Dec. 20.
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was nominated for leading the Republican Party in aggressively blocking legislation that would benefit working people;
Hyatt Hotel Housekeepers in 12 Cities File Injury Complaints with OSHA
 |
|
When you check into a luxury hotel, you expect a clean room and a nicely made bed. But the work it takes to make that room sparkle often is back-breaking and dangerous for the housekeepers who do it.
Today, housekeepers at 12 Hyatt hotels in eight cities across the United States, with the assistance of UNITEHERE!, filed injury complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for repetitive motion and other kinds of injuries sustained on the job. Complaints were filed by workers in Hyatt hotels in San Antonio, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Honolulu and Indianapolis. In a telephone press call, the housekeepers pointed out that some of the hotels do not have union contracts. Having a union would be one way to get safety issues resolved, they said.
Hotel Workers Add 3 Chicago Hyatts to Boycott List
Ross Hyman, a research analyst for the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, shares this info.
Joined by clergy and other community supporters, Hyatt hotel workers gathered outside Hyatt headquarters in Chicago yesterday to announce a boycott of the Hyatt Regency Chicago, the Park Hyatt Chicago and the Hyatt Regency O’Hare hotels. Hyatt workers, members of UNITEHERE!, have been working without a contract for nearly a year as Hyatt management continues in its insistence on cutting employee health care. Hotel workers are now boycotting 10 Hyatt hotels across the nation.
Gabriel Carasquillo, a server at the Park Hyatt, told the crowd:
I truly believe that my health should not be a point of negotiation.
Reform Rabbis Support Hyatt Workers
Ross Hyman, a research analyst for the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, shares this info.
The world’s largest group of Jewish clergy, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), is calling on the owners and leadership of Hyatt Hotels to commit to the Jewish and universal obligations to treat workers fairly and to recognize the value of their labor. The clergy are asking “all Jewish institutions and individuals to support Hyatt workers in their disputes.”
Executive Council Focuses on Jobs, Election, Workers’ Rights
 |
||||
|
||||
In the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Depression, the AFL-CIO Executive Council laid out a road map for how the Obama administration and Congress can fundamentally revamp the nation’s economy so that it puts workers first. President Barack Obama, who addressed the Council on Aug. 4, seemed to get it when he said that making things in America is at the heart of the economic recovery. The Council also laid out plans for the critical fall elections.
In a series of statements, Council members reaffirmed the need for immediate adoption of the AFL-CIO’s five point plan to create new jobs and warned that reducing the deficit must come after we create more revenue-producing jobs. You can check out all the new Executive Council statements here.
