Hyatt Hurts our Economic Recovery

Boycott these Hyatt Hotels

Hyatt Harborside at Logan International Airport
101 Harborside Dr
Boston, MA 02128
Phone: 617 568 1234

Hyatt Regency Boston
1 Avenue De Lafayette
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: 617 912 1234

Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Overlooking Boston
575 Memorial Dr
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: 617 492 1234

Hyatt Regency Chicago
151 E. Wacker
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: 312 565 1234

Park Hyatt Chicago
800 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312 335 1234

Hyatt Regency O'Hare
9300 W. Bryn Mawr
Rosemont, IL 60018
Phone: 847 696 1234

Hyatt Regency Sacramento
1209 L St.
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916 443 1234

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego
One Market Place
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: 619 232 1234

Grand Hyatt San Francisco
345 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: 415-398-1234

Hyatt Regency San Francisco
5 Embarcadero Center
San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone: 415-788-1234

Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf
555 North Point Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
Phone: 415 563 1234

In city after city across North America, Hyatt Hotels is leading the fight against middle class jobs for hotel workers. Nationwide, the hotel industry is rebounding faster and stronger than expected, with a hearty rebound projected in 2011 and 2012. In the six months following Hyatt's November initial public offering
Hyatt's shares were up over 65% (IPO on 11/5/09 at $25; 5/5/10 traded at $41.86). In one day, majority owners of Hyatt Hotels, the Pritzker family, cashed out over $900 million in an initial public offering of the company's stock. As recently as March 31, 2010 Hyatt had $1.3 billion in cash on hand (per 5/6/10 10Q filed with SEC).

Despite trends showing a strong recovery for the hotel industry and hotel owners, big hotel companies are still squeezing workers and cutting staff. Hyatt is the starkest example. Hyatt is using the weak economy as an excuse to slash benefits, eliminate jobs and lock workers into the recession.

The “Hyatt 100”: In Boston, Hyatt fired their entire housekeeping staff at three non-union hotels, laying off 98 longtime housekeepers and replacing them with outsourced workers making minimum wage. Many of the fired workers report that Hyatt required that they train their replacements.

Crisis in Hyatt Contract Negotiations: In cities across North America, Hyatt is attempting to rollback quality job standards and make the recession permanent for thousands of unionized workers. Proposals in several cities would result in the elimination of quality health care for thousands of low wage workers. Cities with contracts Hyatt union contracts expiring in 2009-2010: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Vancouver, Monterey, Honolulu, and Washington DC.

The Struggle of Non-Union Hyatt Workers: In Indianapolis, San Antonio, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Long Beach, workers have called on Hyatt to accept a fair process to enable them to choose whether or not to join a union without employer intimidation. Hyatt has refused. Workers in non-union facilities complain of disrespect from their management, low wages, unaffordable health insurance and high room quotas for room cleaners.

The Grand Hyatt San Antonio recently settled a NLRB complaint regarding its treatment of workers at the hotel. The complaint alleged that workers had been intimidated and retaliated against for participating in legally protected union activities.

Hyatt Hurts Housekeepers

Academic studies have shown housekeeping to be dangerous work that can cause serious injuries, chronic pain and in some instances permanent disability. A study of hotel worker injuries from 50 US hotels was published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine in February 2010. By company, housekeepers working at Hyatt hotels in the AJIM study had the highest injury rate of those hotels studied, with a risk of injury twice that of the company with the lowest rates. The study also found that Hispanic housekeepers had the highest injury rate of all housekeepers, making them almost twice as likely to be injured as white housekeepers in the hotels studied.
To read a summary of the study’s findings or get more information about the study, contact Pam Vossenas (pvossenas@unitehere.org), UNITE HERE Health & Safety.

Hyatt Refresh Program: The Hyatt Refresh Program and a housekeeping workload of up to 30 rooms a day—twice that in many other hotels—is the modern version of a factory speed up. With this program, Hyatt is leading the way in labor-saving practices to the detriment of workers and the service they provide to hotel guests.

Hyatt Hurts the LGBT Community

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. In San Diego, Hyatt has refused to sever ties with Doug Manchester, a Hyatt owner and key funder of the initiative to ban gay marriage in California. To read more, click here. Between March-August 2010, over 20 Hyatt protests will take place at LGBT Pride marches across North America.