Boycott Hyatt ... But Think About the Big Picture, Too

It's rare to see virtually the entire Boston political establishment and media united behind a group of workers in a labor dispute, but that presently seems to be the case - given the near universal outrage we're witnessing over the firing of over 100 Boston Hyatt housekeeping workers that came to light this week. So it goes without saying that Open Media Boston backs the so far informal calls for a nationwide boycott of all Hyatt hotels. However, what's really interesting to me is that this provides a very public teachable moment against the problem of the rising use of contingent work in American labor markets. Especially since I spent several years organizing local and nationally to try (and fail) to get legal changes passed by state and federal legislatures that could have prevented the kind of scenario we're seeing at Hyatt from ever happening again in the U.S. And let's be clear, this kind of stuff happens to un-unionized workers every day - and even, unfortunately, to some unionized workers depending on the situation. It has been going on since the 1970s. It's only accelerated in the last couple of decades. It is, sadly, nothing new.

So it's great to hear high-level politicians like Rep. Michael Capuano getting genuinely indignant and calling for swift public action against companies like Hyatt that have brazenly ordered long-time regular employees train their own contingent replacements - in this case from an "outsourcing" company - then fire them without warning as soon as the new people are trained. (And fire them in such a way that even the few laws, regulations and treaty provisions that might help them - like plant closing laws - most likely do not apply.)

But it's frankly bizarre to hear Capuano and others - including local union leaders who should know better by now - treating Hyatt's action like it's an aberration in 21st century corporate practice. It's not. It's absolutely the way business is normally done in the U.S. and around the world right now. The only difference with these workers is that they managed to organize themselves after they were fired and seek help from UNITE HERE Local 26 - a union with enough resources and political muscle to make a loud stink about the situation. And so Hyatt has gotten exposed in a pretty big way.

Which is great. But the workers don't have their jobs back yet, and since the word is that over half of local Hyatt workers were already working for the same outsourcing company that replaced the recently fired group of Hyatt workers - chances aren't good that they will prevail. Not without a sustained fight.

And if Local 26 mounts a solid campaign against Hyatt then the workers will get their jobs back, and at least the 3 local Hyatt hotels in question might even be unionized. And that, too, would be great ... but for the fact that unionizing a few hundred or even a few thousand workers in the current anti-union climate is not a strategy for passing laws and regulations that will stop employers from being able to use various kinds of contingent work arrangements - like temp work, day labor, independent contractor status, contract work, etc. - as a cudgel with which to jam jobs with rock bottom wages and no benefits at all down workers' throats. Even as the self-same corporations fight tooth and nail against a single-payer health care system or even the relatively weak "public option" plan that the Democrats are pushing.

In the absence of such legal protections, the overwhelming majority of un-unionized workers have almost no defense against misuse of contingent work arrangements by employers. And even the dwindling percentage of unionized workers are often just an offshoring deal away from losing their jobs and their union in one fell swoop.

Unions may not be perfect. But if American workers think they're going to beat back the kind of employer assault on workers rights represented by Hyatt's latest reprehensible actions without collective organizations operating in their interests, then they are getting more and more hard lessons about why that view is flawed with every passing day.

On the other hand, if unions think they're going to sew up industrial sectors like the hotel sector by traditional post-WWII organizing methods and skip the big ticket items like passing laws to protect contingent workers - not to mention the Employee Free Choice Act and national health care - then they too will be getting more and more hard lessons about why that view also is flawed.

What is needed, as I've said before and will continue to say, is a militant independent labor movement that makes it clear to everyone in this country - native-born or immigrant - that it fights on behalf of all workers. That, to dust off an old Industrial Workers of the World slogan, an injury to one is truly an injury to all. And that it's going to go to the wall to stop companies like Hyatt from running roughshod over workers rights.

This will mean far more independence from the Democratic Party than I saw on display at the Local 26-run Hyatt protest Thursday. Where - during election season, mind you - lots of local politicians were introduced as "friends of labor" or just "our friends." And there was lots of tough-sounding talk from all parties. But as I've said before, it's long past time for labor to reward true political friends that take solid action on behalf of working people and win the legislation we all desperately need to make this country a decent place for working families again. And to punish fake friends that stick their hands out at election time (see my Labor Day editorial for more on that) and give us lots of platitudes about how much they care about working people, then climb into bed with the corporations the moment they get into office. Then start thinking about backing progressive candidates from other parties than the Democrats - like the Greens.

I mean seriously, with a solid and supposedly pro-labor Democratic majority at the state and national level there is just no excuse for companies like Hyatt being able to pull stunts like they're pulling with the fired housekeepers. If it takes some time to pass the protective legislation that should have been passed 15 years ago, then we should at least see moves to suspend all government contracts, direct public funding and tax breaks that Hyatt takes advantage of - and you can be sure they do to the tune of millions a year. And to slam the company with every kind of labor, health and safety violation that it's possible to hit them with until they reverse course.

Because scratch any big capitalist like Hyatt's CEO and you'll find another leech on the public treasury, sucking the teat of the much-reviled "Mommy State" harder than 100,000 apocryphal "welfare cheats" put together. Big companies like Hyatt simply can't exist without government support. So cut them off until we get the labor laws we need passed. Then keep them cut off until change their tune.

At that point maybe people will be ready to ask the question if these private entities providing public service for profit really even need to exist at all.

But I digress. At base, the situation with the fired Hyatt workers is very simple. Hurt the company badly enough, and the workers can win. Let them off the hook, and the workers lose. The support rally for the workers was a nice start. Now let's see if the labor movement can get their jobs back, chalk one up in the win column, organize some hotels and move on to the bigger ticket items from there.

I will surely watch the development of this particular campaign with great interest.

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston