About the Boycotts

Please refer the Union Hotel Guide to search for recommended union hotels. Make sure to steer clear of boycotted hotels and you may wish to consider the desirability of staying at hotels that are at risk of dispute (where there are current or looming labor disputes). Be aware that this list only reflects the present status of union hotels across North America. To avoid the prospect of labor conflict during your stay at a hotel, insist on protective contractual language when you make a reservation or organize an event. For model protective language, click here.

HYATT BOYCOTTS

There are active boycotts at seven Hyatt hotels in Boston, San Francisco and San Diego. In city after city, Hyatt is using the economy as an excuse to roll back benefits for its hardworking employees and lock workers into a recession for years to come. In one dramatic example, the three Boston-area Hyatts fired all their housekeepers (about 100 of them) and replaced them with outsourced workers being paid minimum wage.

Moreover, members of the LGBT community and UNITE HERE have joined forces to take on Hyatt, a company that is both anti-worker and anti-gay. Hyatt is in partnership with Doug Manchester, the owner of the Grand Hyatt in San Diego and one of the worst enemies of the LGBT community. Manchester provided seed money to fuel Proposition 8, which deprives same sex couples of the right to marry, at a critical stage of the campaign, allowing the measure to get on the ballot and eventually pass. While Hyatt courts an LGBT customer base, the company refuses to condemn Manchester's actions. Leaders of the LGBT community and UNITE HERE have launched a boycott of this hotel, and together we have cost the company millions of dollars in business.

CONGRESS HOTEL BOYCOTT

THE LONGEST HOTEL STRIKE IN AMERICAN HISTORY: On June 15, 2003, members of UNITE HERE Local 1 working at the Congress Hotel went out on strike after the hotel decided to freeze wages and slash benefits. To ensure that hotel jobs in this city are strong, family-sustaining jobs, Congress strikers have taken the fight to the streets of Chicago and around the world. Now seven years and running, the Congress Hotel strike stands as the longest hotel strike in history. For more information, visit www.PresidentPicketsCongress.org.

COLUMBIA SUSSEX HOTEL BOYCOTTS

In the past few years, hotel workers at 4 unionized hotels owned and operated by Columbia Sussex – Baltimore Sheraton City Center in Maryland, Hilton Crystal City in [Northern Virginia, Anchorage Hilton in Alaska and Hilton Sacramento West in California – have faced a variety of cuts, including layoffs, benefit reductions, pay freezes, higher costs for health insurance, and/or work speed-ups in the wake of their hotel’s acquisition by Columbia Sussex. Workers are actively boycotting those 4 hotels.

UNITE HERE has also called on customers to boycott 4 additional Columbia Sussex hotels in support of its call for a fair process to organize a union. They are: Westin Washington DC City Center, Westin Emerald Plaza San Diego, Wyndham Chicago and Westin Chicago Northwest (Itasca).

Columbia Sussex is the fourth largest owner of full service hotels in the U.S., building its 67-hotel empire during the boom years by borrowing heavily to buy hotels. 5 of the 8 boycotted hotels were acquired by Columbia Sussex in 2005 in a package of 14 hotels, where 79% of the purchase price was borrowed. The $1.1 billion of debt supported by these 14 hotels comes due in October 2010 and – as for many of the hotel loans issued at the height of the real estate market – the future is uncertain. The senior notes for this debt comprise most of the Bear Stearns 2006-BBA7 CMBS, and account for 93% of the outstanding balance.

HEI Boycotts:

Workers at several properties run by HEI Hotels & Resorts—including Le Meridien in San Francisco, the Long Beach Hilton in Southern California, and the Sheraton Crystal City in Northern Virginia—have called boycotts in support of their demand that their employer adopt a fair process that allows them to decide whether to have a union in an environment free from employer intimidation. Since taking this demand to their employer, union supporters have been terminated, and others have brought charges against HEI for illegal intimidation, surveillance, and interference with their right to organize. Student activists from around the US have joined workers in this campaign, because most of HEI’s financial backing comes from large university endowments. For more information, visit HEIworkersrising.info.