Union Protest Against Hyatt Ends in Civil Disobedience

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 200 people attended a protest picket outside the Hyatt Regency Boston hotel on Thurs. July 22nd to demand that the Hyatt Corporation reinstate the jobs of 98 former members of their housekeeping staff. The event was part of a nationwide day of protest by the UNITE HERE hotel workers union. Similar protests were held in several other cities.

The fired workers - collectively known as the "Hyatt 100" - were long-time nonunion Hyatt employees at three of the chain's Boston area hotels who were let go last summer after being pushed to train the temp workers who ultimately replaced them. The Hyatt 100 workers then approached UNITE HERE for assistance, and the union began a protest campaign and called a boycott against Hyatt hotels. The boycott has attracted support from Gov. Deval Patrick and several other politicians plus numerous institutions, unions, and organizations including Emerson College, the National Organization for Women and the NAACP.

After about a half hour of picketing on the sidewalk outside the Hyatt Regency Boston, 17 people - including some of the fired workers, UNITE HERE staff and members of the local clergy - held a civil disobedience action by blocking the front doors of the hotel. They remained seated for a short time until Boston Police approached each protestor in turn, got them on their feet, restrained them with plastic handcuffs, and led them to a nearby police van.

At the conclusion of the arrests, Local 26 president Janice Loux addressed the crowd through a megaphone, "We told Hyatt Corporation over a year ago - when they committed this criminal act - the criminal act of putting those men and women out in the streets. Without any health insurance. Without anywhere to go. Without any consideration for their families. Without any thought of the human experience that was going to happen to them after that fact. And their children. This corporation doesn't care about people. This corporation cares about profits. And we will stand with our shoulders up against this company until these women and men from the Hyatt 100 return to their jobs in these three buildings in this city. We have an old saying at Local 26, 'We will never surrender!' We will never surrender. We will never surrender.

"Can we tell the Hyatt Corporation that we're going to be back? Week in. Week out. When they least expect it. Until they give justice to the Hyatt 100."

Following Loux's speech, the event concluded without further incident.

The next day, Kerry Schlaack of Hyatt Regency Boston issued the following statement in response to the action, "The Hyatts of Boston, like so many businesses and institutions across Massachusetts, made a difficult decision a year ago to reduce our housekeeping staff. We made this necessary business decision in response to the unprecedented economic challenges our hotels – and businesses throughout Massachusetts – were facing. To date, more than 100,000 workers in the state have lost their jobs in the recession.

"We publicly acknowledged that our communication with the affected housekeepers could have been handled better. However, unlike most employers who had to make similar difficult decisions, Hyatt covered the cost of extended medical insurance coverage and offered alternative job opportunities to every affected housekeeper.

"Although we provided unprecedented transition support to our former associates who lost their jobs, UniteHere has chosen over the last year to mischaracterize our decision and use our former associates to advance its national agenda.

"Unfortunately, it seems clear that the union, with apparent disregard for our former associates’ wellbeing, discouraged these associates from accepting our offer of assistance. Moreover, UniteHere has spent the past year shamelessly using these former Hyatt employees to advance its own membership drive and to pressure on Hyatt in markets where we are in contract negotiations with the union.

"The union has also distorted the facts about the Boston situation in a campaign of misinformation and intimidation in an attempt to solicit support from other organizations. We have met with many of these groups to explain our position and make clear the unprecedented steps we have taken to ease the transition of our former associates.

"We remain committed to the Boston market and are proud of the contributions our properties make to the communities we serve.

UNITE HERE Local 26 did not respond to email and phone requests for comment on Hyatt's statement.