AFL-CIO Adds More Than 30 Hotels to National Boycott List

PRESS RELEASE FROM
The UNION LABEL & SERVICE TRADES DEPARTMENT (AFL-CIO)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 6, 2010
Contact: Annemarie Strassel, Communications Coordinator
UNITE HERE/Hotel Workers Rising
astrassel@unitehere.org (312) 617-0495

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The AFL-CIO has added three Hyatt Hotels in Chicago and two California facilities to its national boycott list at the request of UNITE HERE, bringing the total number of boycotted hotels to 31. The newly-added Chicago facilities are the Hyatt Regency O’Hare (officially in the city of Rosemont, IL), the Park Hyatt Chicago and the Hyatt Regency Chicago. In Long Beach, California, the Embassy Suites in Irvine, CA goes on the list along with the Long Beach Hyatt Regency.

While the union’s battle with Hyatt has gained the most notoriety, UNITE HERE’s Hotel Workers Rising Campaign is spotlighting dozens of individual hotels and chains that have attempted to use the down economy as an excuse to slash wages, benefits and working conditions for hospitality industry workers even though the hotel industry is rebounding.

“In cities across North America, Hyatt is attempting to roll back quality job standards and make the recession permanent for thousands of unionized workers,” the union asserts. In several cities, UNITE HERE negotiators have confronted proposals that would eliminate quality health care for thousands of low-wage workers. Contracts for UNITE HERE members who work at Hyatt have expired in several cities, including: San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Honolulu, Toronto and Vancouver.

The union also reports unrest and labor management difficulties in properties in ieght other cities: Boston, Long Beach, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Anchorage, Providence and Northern Virginia.

For more on UNITE HERE’s Hotel Workers Rising Campaign, go to: www.hotelworkersrising.org.