Workers Protest Mistreatment by Hyatt
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Thousands of hotel workers in 15 cities across North America have been taking to the streets today to protest the practices of Hyatt and its billionaire owners—the politically influential Pritzker family.
The hotel industry has rebounded quickly from the recession but hotel workers have not shared in the profits they helped create. Nationwide, more than 115,000 jobs in the hotel industry have been cut since the recession began in 2008, including 46,000 in the first quarter of 2010 alone.
As of March 31, Hyatt reported it had more than $1.3 billion in cash available. Yet Hyatt workers have endured staff cuts, reduced hours, and excessive injury rates. In one stark example, Hyatt fired the entire housekeeping staff from its three Boston-area hotels and replaced them with minimum-wage workers from a subcontracting agency. While many hotel workers live in poverty, the Pritzker family cashed out more than $900 million as part of Hyatt’s initial public offering last November.
UNITE HERE Fighting for Hotel Workers Across Nation
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Members of UNITE HERE are walking out and digging in to fight for fair contracts at hotels across the country. Some 650 workers at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco went on strike this morning and will remain out until the first shift on Saturday morning.
Members of UNITE HERE Local 2 voted by a 92 percent to 8 percent margin to authorize strikes at any of the 31 upscale hotels in San Francisco. Despite earning record profits over the past five years, the hotels are using the recession as an excuse to demand changes in eligibility for the employees’ health care plan that would eliminate coverage or put it out of reach for many workers.
UNITE HERE contracts covering some 7,500 workers at 37 hotels in Chicago and 9,000 at 31 San Francisco hotels expired in August. Talks are continuing with the largest employers in each city. The hotel management companies are pressing for contracts that would slash health and retirement benefits and would increase workloads.
Workers Strike San Francisco’s Grand Hyatt Hotel
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| San Francisco hotel workers rallied in September for a fair contract. |
Hotel workers began a three-day strike this morning at the Grand Hyatt Union Square in San Francisco. The strike comes two weeks after members of UNITE HERE Local 2 voted by a 92 percent to 8 percent margin to authorize strikes at any of the 31 upscale hotels in San Francisco.
Local 2′s contracts with the luxury hotels expired in June. Since then, the union has been trying to negotiate new agreements. But despite earning record profits over the past five years, the hotels are using the recession as an excuse to demand changes in eligibility for the employees’ health care plan that would eliminate coverage or put it out of reach for many workers.
“This is a limited strike,” said Local 2 President Mike Casey.
It’s intended to send a clear signal to this corporation that they cannot use a temporary downturn to permanently drive down workers’ living standards.
While demanding workers take concessions, the Pritzker family, which owns the Grand Hyatt, is conducting an initial public stock offering today expected to raise close to $1 billion.
Says Aurolyn Rush, a 13-year telephone operator at the Grand Hyatt:
Hyatt’s cashing out almost a billion dollars for its owners, but at the same time they’re pushing to make health care unaffordable for me and my family? That is unforgivable, and we’re not going to stand for it.
