Hyatt Hotel Workers Get Support From State of Massachusetts

http://www.laborradio.org/node/12029

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on September 24, 2009 - 4:04pm

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Hyatt hotels are feeling pressure in major cities throughout the country. Jesse Russell reports:

State workers in Massachusetts have been instructed to stop doing business with Hyatt hotels. At issue is the chain’s decision to layoff 100 housekeepers in the Boston area and replacing them with lower paid workers. According to a letter sent by Governor Deval Patrick there have been reports that some Hyatt employees were required to train their replacements before being let go. Hyatt issued a statement saying the decision was made to cope with the current economic climate. The company said laid-off housekeepers have received severance and will continue to have health care coverage until the end of the year. The chain says that boycott threats from the Governor could jeopardize the positions of 600 more workers. The issue with Hyatt in Boston has echoed all the way to Chicago where hundreds of hotel workers protested in front of the Park Hyatt on Thursday. The union was protesting in solidarity with the 100 fired housekeepers in Boston, but also as they are embroiled in their own contract negotiations with the chain.

The very idea that the people who were going to be fired were training the people who would take over their jobs, and without them knowing they were about to be canned mind you, is as low as it gets. Of all the stories that cable news shows choose to pound down out throats hour after hour, why didn't this get that type of play? Because no one cares about low paying workers who work their asses off and probably emigrated here recently? You think?