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Members of service-workers union Unite Here began picketing at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Thursday morning, joining workers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu.
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Since its contract with Hyatt Hotels Corp. expired in August 2009, Unite Here has staged a series of one-day strikes in cities across the nation, including Chicago, protesting the company's outsourcing practices and what workers claim are abusive working conditions.
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But the current job action is the first call for a multi-day picket line, reflecting the union's frustration with what Harry Tamarin, the President of UNITE HERE Local 1 in Chicago, claimed was Hyatt's refusal "to budge on these important issues."
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"Hyatt Regency Chicago continues to operate normally," said Patrick Donelly, the hotel's general manager. "Unfortunately, this work stoppage could have been avoided if the local union had accepted the identical wage and benefits package they already accepted from Hilton, Starwood and InterContinental."
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Hyatt, which is controlled by Chicago's wealthy Pritzker family, is, indeed, the last of the major hotel chains to come to terms with Unite Here.
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Annemarie Strassel, the spokesperson for Local 1, which represents about 1,000 workers at the two hotels, said the sticking point with Hyatt wasn't the wage and benefit package, but the company's rejection of the union's proposed changes in work rules. Hyatt, she claimed, has the worst record among the major national hotel chains when it comes to working conditions.
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Unite Here is demanding, for instance, changes in language that would rein in subcontracting and has asked that a housekeeper's daily schedule be trimmed from cleaning 16 rooms to 15. Housekeepers are also on call to clean more than 10 "checkouts," which take additional time.
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"It's not the wages," said Cynthia Hill, 36, a nine-year veteran of the Hyatt McCormick Place housekeeping staff who was recently� off work for eight weeks with a back injury suffered on the job. "I'm (striking) because of how we're treated."
Strassel said the union is also fighting for the right to be able to call local strikes in support of Hyatt workers in other cities, reflecting the union's concerns about the company's treatment of workers.
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A Hyatt representative was not immediately available to comment on the union's complaints over working conditions.
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The relationship between Hyatt and Unite Here hit a low in July when Park Hyatt Chicago employees turned the hotel's outside heat lamps on as workers picketed nearby, inflaming the standoff. Even so, talks between Hyatt and the union aren't at a complete standstill. Although several attempts to resolve the contract came to naught over the summer, Strassel said a fresh round of discussions are scheduled for later this month.
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