JLC activists, Rabbis, Join Protest for Hyatt Workers
Thousands protest how Hyatt management and owners take unfair advantage of tough times.
Chicago JLC Area Director Eli Fishman [center, in blue shirt] joining Hyatt Demo.
July 22, 2010: Rabbis, cantors and other Jewish communal leaders were among thousands of workers and supporters across North America taking part in rallies, often including non-violent civil disobedience actions as part of a 15-city coordinated day of action. They joined UNITE HERE union members working in hotels -- cooks, bellman, dishwashers, and housekeepers, among others -- and allies from the Jewish community, along with leaders of many other faiths and community organizations, who participated in events in Chicago, Honolulu, San Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Monterey, Boston, Vancouver, Toronto, Miami, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San Diego. Jewish Labor Committee activists participated in a number of these rallies.
Why were they demonstrating? Workers in Hyatt hotels across North America have endured staff cuts, reduced hours, and excessive injury rates. And Hyatt wants to force more givebacks and lock workers into unfair contracts even as the economy rebounds.
In August 2009, Hyatt fired the entire housekeeping staff -- 98 workers -- at its three Boston-area hotels and replaced them with non-union contracted workers earning a minimum wage without benefits. Many of the housekeepers had worked for Hyatt for 20 or more years and earned between $15 and $16 an hour plus benefits. Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Chair of the New England JLC's Rabbinic Cabinet, considered this such an egregious betrayal of basic dignity and respect for workers that she created a petition calling on all Jewish institutions and individuals who might otherwise stay at the three Boston-area Hyatt hotels to find other accommodations until Hyatt rehired the housekeepers. The petition campaign grew, and eventually over 220 rabbis and cantors signed on. A delegation of rabbis and Jewish community leaders led by Rabbi Penzner met with Hyatt executives in December 2009 to ask that the housekeepers be re-hired and the Hyatt Corporation treat its employees fairly in their hotels across the country. Neither requests were honored to date.
Hyatt went public in November 2009, and the value of its shares climbed 65 percent within six months. Yes, with hotels returning to profitability, the Hyatt Hotel corporation is seeking to lock many of its employees into long-term poverty and suffering. In San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles, Hyatt has proposed long-term contracts that would drastically curtail or eliminate health benefits for its employees. In Indianapolis, San Antonio, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Long Beach, workers have asked for a fair process to choose whether or not to join a union without employer intimidation. Hyatt has refused.
On June 9, 2010, a delegation of nearly 100 Chicago religious leaders went to confront Hyatt Hotel's Board of Directors at the company's first annual shareholder meeting, held in Chicago. The delegation of religious leaders of multiple faiths, met with the Hyatt's director of communications, and expressed their concern for how Hyatt has treated its hotel workers across North America.
Rabbis and other Jewish communal leaders across North America have played a key role in building support for Hyatt workers, leading numerous delegations to top Hyatt executives and pledging to support Hyatt workers by honoring worker-led boycotts. Over 150 of them have signed a "Justice at Hyatt" pledge - and the number is growing. [See www.JusticeatHyatt.org on this.] The rabbis have spoken: "We cannot stand idly by as the housekeepers and hotel workers of the Hyatt Hotels stand to lose their hard won and fair compensation. The call to pursue justice (Deuteronomy 16:20) demands that we stand with these workers so that they don't slip into poverty." The signatory rabbis, cantors, and community leaders "call on the owners and leadership of Hyatt Hotels to commit to the Jewish and universal obligations to treat workers fairly and to recognize the value of their labor," and "call on all Jewish institutions and individuals to support Hyatt workers in their disputes." They express their willingness to boycott Hyatt properties in support of these principles if requested to do so by the affected workers.
UNITE HERE represents more than 300,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in the hospitality, gaming, food service, manufacturing, laundry, and airport industries. The union has partnered with the Jewish Labor Committee, California's Progressive Jewish Alliance, Chicago's Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Los Angeles' Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, to name just a few social justice organizations, in support of the rights of working men and women in the hotel and hospitality sector.
New England JLC activists Dave Borrus and Janet Seckel-Cerrotti at Hyatt Demo in Boston. Photograph by Liz Kendricken.