Hyatt Hotels Corp. is in trouble in Boston, with labor protests and calls for boycotts from local authorities and individuals in response to Hyatt’s mass firing of 130 housekeepers from the three Hyatt hotels in Boston – the Hyatt Regency Boston, Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and Hyatt Harborside Hotel.
Hyatt Regency Boston
On Aug 31, at the end of the day’s work, Hyatt simply kicked out the housekeeping staff – some of whom had been working for more than 20 years, and replaced them with out-of-state workers from Georgia based Hospitality Staffing Solutions.
As a result, not only are the fired workers fighting for their rights, but they also have support from organized labor (Unite Here – Local 26) in Boston, and local politicians – who have no wish to see local jobs in Boston outsourced to low cost workers from out-of-state. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said the job cuts “fly in the face of what Boston is all about.”
Some people are offering financial assistance to the workers, while companies are saying they will no longer recommend Hyatt to their out-of-town business partners who need hotels while in Boston.
And the anger and coming together of interests against Hyatt resulted in a massive protest rally outside the Hyatt Regency in Boston, with hundreds of placard waving workers picketing it and telling guests to boycott the hotel.
Hyatt’s biggest mistake was to trick the fired employees into helping train their own replacements – Management told the workers the trainees would be used for filling in spots while employees were on vacation.
And then they put out this press statement – “We are providing the affected associates with assistance, including severance and outplacement counseling. Hyatt is committed to treating our employees with honesty and respect.”
Considering the sheer force of public anger, Hyatt will probably have to backtrack and rehire the fired employees – or provide a sizeable settlement. Not to mention the heavy PR damage caused by the nationwide negative publicity.
Update 1: Sept 18, 2009 - Hyatt is in a really serious mess now. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick had a chat with Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian and asked him to reconsider Hyatt’s decision. He also made a veiled threat which implies that unless Hyatt backtracks, he could ask all state workers to stay away from Hyatt hotels. That would be a devastating blow for Hyatt.
If Hyatt does not sort this out by Monday, they’re going to be facing a nationwide boycott.
Update 2: Sept 19, 2009 – Statement from Hyatt – Denies that they tricked employees into training their replacements. Also denies that said replacements are from out-of-state. Hyatt says replacements are also living in Boston area, and also get benefits.
There’s now a Hyatt Boycott website – www.hyattboycott.com
Update 3: Sept 21, 2009 – Hyatt forms Taskforce to help fired employees – The taskforce will help in retraining and helping the 98 housekeepers who were let go find new jobs. Hyatt is also extending their healthcare benefits upto the end of the year. The benefits were slated to expire at the end of September.
Update 4: Sept 23, 2009 – Gov. Patrick wrote to Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian and threatened that state workers would boycott the Hyatt unless the workers were rehired. More updates on this here.
Update 5: Sept 24, 2009 – Boston Taxi Drivers Association – which represents 1,700 taxi drivers – are also boycotting the Hyatt and will refuse to service any Hyatt hotel in Boston. Also, Union activists in Boston have launched a ‘Save the Hyatt 100′ group on Facebook.
Update 6: Sept 25, 2009 – Unite Here has arranged for one of the fired housekeepers – Angela Norena – to fly to Chicago and personally appeal to Penny Pritzker. The Pritzker family owns Hyatt, and Penny Pritzker was the national finance chairman of President Obama’s campaign last year.
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18 Responses
I will never stay at a HYATT MEVER AGAIN!!
I’msure Hyatt has made some good decisions before…. this is definitley NOT one of them !!! Bad PR case and it shows that you do not care for human beings !!
EPIC FAIL HYATT !!! SHAME ON YOU !!!!
BOOOO for Hyatt. I will avoid Hyatts and will tell all my business colleagues to stay away from these Hyatts in Boston
HYATT ! YOU SUCK !
BOOOO for Hyatt. I will avoid Hyatts and will tell all my business colleagues to stay away from these Hyatts in Boston
HYATT ! YOU SUCK !
I think Hyatt Corp. thought this would just get ” swept under the rug ” like others things they do … They didn’t know that housekeeping staff would get together and fight it..
BIG mistake Hyatt ! BIG
The downsizing / outsourcing is only one of the issues facing Hyatt. As a procurement manager responsible for booking meetings I would have to place these three hotels on the “do not source” list. There is a huge liability to having a non-employee being given access to guestrooms. Are these outsource workers Bonded and covered by insurance? Are the hotels willing to accept liability for guest items in a guestroom? I suspect no to each.
A very bad move on Hyatt’s part. I certainly will consider this move in any decision I make concerning where I stay. The importance of long term and loyal employees should not be under estimated in the hotel business. Known employees, responsible directly to management rather than to an outside employer
give a guest a sense of security.
Of course, I will never stay at a Hyatt property again, and I am telling everyone I know not to. They deserve that for what they did.
Shame on Hyatt! I will not be staying at one of their hotels again. I have conference coming up at Hyatt Regency Crystal City. I will be staying at the Marriott near by instead.
Shame on you Hyatt!!! You SUCK!!! ill never stay at one one of your hotels EVER again!!!!!! Bitch!!!!!
Hyatt You suck for this…these people scrub toilets for you! And for little money compared to what you charge! How about all the money you spend on drinking partys for your management and sales? If you were AIG you would be in jail for this! Where is Mr Obama on this one???? Oh, sorry, Chicago based insider….again.
Of course….
Dawn, you are right on. These people have no clue. I am the Travel Manager for a large corp that worked with Hyatt up to 2 days ago and we have have already sent the “NO HYATT” message worldwide to our employees. They need to fix this or continue the death track they are on. RS
I already sent you an email saying I would never stay at a Hyatt again. ..and I mean it. I used to stay at the Hyatt or the Marriott in Toronto. I preferred the Hyatt, but I’m going to book the Marriott EVERY TIME from now on. You have no shame.
Shameful. And their “contact us” link is off their site. Good. Hide.
No mention of this on the Chicago Sun Times site either. Mob Town.
I wonder if any of the upper management staff, from local GM’s to all of the folks in the corporate offices, have taken any note-worthy pay cuts. Highly doubtful. Let’s just can the housekeepers instead so we can keep our luxurious life style. BOO!
I’m very surprised how quickly this whole incident blew up. People are losing their jobs every day, and you rarely hear anything other than the basic statistics on the news. Why this individual case managed to get so much attention is really beyond me. Obviously, any time staff are made redundant is a pretty tragic case, but Hyatt was no different than the thousands of other companies trying to stay alive in this challenging economy. Basically Hyatt Hotels does not care if a few poeple and their friends don’t stay at their hotel again, there are many other people in this world who do not care about the situation and will stay anywhere they please. Plus the whole cabs boycotting the Hyatt hotel does not affect anybody, there are other cab companys who are making more of profit then before, because certain cab companys aren’t coming to the hotel, there not making things better for themselves, it’s only getting worst for these company’s. So again Hyatt Hotels do not care if “You” do not want to stay there, you mean nothing to them and they will just brush you off, you will just be replaced by other people. One more thing the company who replaced these housekeepers had been working side by side with the housekeepers for three years and are a company that is based in East Boston, but if the housekeepers didn’t lie about their situation, then they would have just been another statistics in the media.
i think that corralling a bunch of women in a room and to tell them they are more or less not needed anymore is a highly unsafe situation. (I wouldn’t want to be the guy with that job)
I was going to do Arisia again this year, but am selling our registration to whomever wants it. I’m not supporting a convention that takes place in/supports a hotel that does this sort of thing.
Yes, people are fired/let go every day in this economy. I think the issue is that the hotel lied to their employees and cut corners to improve the situation for the managerial staff/higher ups. They get a bonus for saving the company money, while people who have worked there loyally for years and out in the cold. It’s disgusting, and being a common business practice doesn’t make it any less so. Just the opposite. If people don’t support the old staff and let the hotels know how they feel, more and more places will pull this kind of thing. You say the hotels don’t care if “You” boycott their hotels. But the world is made up of individual people, single voices. And when those voices are raised together, we can and do accomplish positive change. Saying “I’m only one person, what I do won’t make a difference” is what got us where we are now. Don’t we as human beings owe it to ourselves to do better?
“Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil, which we must fear most. And that is, the indifference of Good Men.”
I continue to support Hyatt and have not noticed any difference in my rooms or service. Why should Hyatt pay more to the old staff if they are willing and able bodied people to take their spot for less? This is a market driven economy and the market said that these housekeepers were overpaid. I hope Hyatt can generate more income from this move so that they can continue to serve customers in Boston for years to come.