Reason Enough To Boycott

[plumtreeblossom]

Three Hyatt hotels in Boston tricked their housekeeping staffs into training outsourced "vacation replacement" workers, then laid-off the staffers and installed the outsourced workers in their place. The staffers had been making $15+ per hour with health benefits and 401Ks. Some had been with Hyatt for over 20 years. The outsourced workers will make $8 an hour with no benefits. (For those not local, $8 an hour is far below a living wage even in greater Boston's poorest neighborhoods).

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/09/17/housekeepers_lose_hyatt_jobs_to_outsourcing/

Obviously I have no personal need for hotels in Boston, but when employed I book local hotels for executives and clients all the time. I urge anyone working in administration or travel assistance, or anyone who travels for business or pleasure, to choose another chain. The article outlines how other hotel chains have dealt with economic hardship without ruining the lives of entire departments of staffers. This didn't have to happen. It's deplorable, and it makes me see red.

Comments

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

These people are lower than carrion. Knowing what they've done, I am happy to boycott their chain in perpetuity.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

This, of course, means no Arisia for me, since it takes place at one of the Hyatt hotels involved. I ask anyone involved with Arisia management to keep this heinous lack of ethics under consideration when planning future cons.

[ron_newman]

I posted this to arisia.

It's much too late to cancel or move the con, but someone there suggested that Arisia offer a vendor booth to the hotel workers' union.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

It it can be pulled off, I would support that idea.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

As a member of UNITE-HERE Local 2661, I support this idea and would probably sit at the table for a while to help out.

[ron_newman]

I did not know this. How did you come to be part of a hotel workers' union local?

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

My workplace was organized by UNITE around 1996, IIRC; UNITE was formed out of ILGWU and ACTWU in 1995, and began to organize nonprofits as well as people in the needle and textile trades. Then UNITE and HERE merged in 2004. Thus are we now members of UNITE-HERE (for as long as UNITE-HERE remins, um, united, anyway).

[moechus.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea. I assume that Hyatt's hideous behavior will be taken into account when planning Arisia 2011?

Re: my letter to Hyatt

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Whoops, that was supposed to be a 1st-level reply to plumtreeblossom. Oh well.

my letter to Hyatt

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

As a resident of the greater Boston area, a member of UNITE-HERE Local 2661, a Massachusetts taxpayer, and as a decent human being, I am writing to express my outrage over the decision to cut housekeeping jobs at three Boston-area hotels and replace them with imported laborers who will make minimum wage with no benefits. Bad enough to do this, but to trick the workers you were about to lay off into training their replacements? And then Mr. Sacco makes remarks that reveal how little regard he has for any of these people as human beings...just how low can you get?

And these wage slaves that you're importing -- exactly how are they supposed to get by in Boston with minimum wage pay and no benefits? I guess Hyatt wagered that the Massachusetts taxpayers would pick up the slack. Classy move...thanks for that!

My favorite science fiction convention has been taking place at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge for the last few years, and I've always enjoyed staying there. The staff have been wonderful, the rooms and beds extremely comfortable, and the food quite good. Now, though, I don't think I can stay there for the convention in good conscience this coming January. Many of my friends and fellow convention-goers are feeling the same way. Our convention is committed to the Hyatt for January 2010, but that doesn't mean we won't look elsewhere for 2011.

I understand that Hyatt, like so many other corporations, continues to feel the sting of the recession. I can even accept that perhaps the only way to cut costs was to lay off some staff. However, the manner in which it was done was despicable and slimy, and somehow I doubt that any of the salaried management were asked to tighten their belts in order to help preserve the jobs and the dignity of their less skilled, less remunerated employees.

For shame.

Sincerely,
hammercock

---

Sent to contacts here and here.

Re: my letter to Hyatt

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Good work! I sent one, too. I hope everyone who feels the same way does.

[vikinggreeneyes.livejournal.com]

Carrion is usually innocently dead animals=however, I shall agree with you wholeheartedly on said boycott.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

That's heinous.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

It makes me feel ill.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Likewise - such a shitty thing to do.

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

This makes attending Arisia...awkward (to say the least).

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I'm not going. I never did stay at the con hotel (we stay elsewhere that weekend), but I'm not even going on a day pass unless I can find a way to do it without one penny going to the Hyatt. But probably I'll just skip it. Not to punish Arisia, who had nothing whatsoever to do with this, but I'm too disgusted to even set foot in that hotel.

[cathijosephine.livejournal.com]

That's happened to me more than once. Ouch.

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

I just read the article and wrote myself a note - no more Hyatt. I book travel constantly in my job and use Hyatt quite a bit.

Not any more.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Good to hear. Spread the word at your university.

[gravitrue.livejournal.com]

more than that, tell Hyatt. Boycott won't do any good if the target doesn't know about it.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Oh believe me, I am.

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

Horrible. Those boycotting should let Hyatt know why they just lost business.

[smacaski.livejournal.com]

Thanks for expressing my outrage better than I could.

And yeah, if Hyatt doesn't reverse this right quick, I'm certainly not staying in their hotel, and I'm very much inclined not to so much as step inside the hotel, even if it means no Arisia at all. A

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I will be considering not going to Arisia. The three of us will, however, likely be staying in the overflow hotel if we do go. Or day tripping from home instead of hoteling; we could use the money.

I'm still waiting for my call from the GM of the Hyatt. As I told the Arisia LJ, I'm not holding my breath :-)

[saxikath]

Utterly appalling. I don't do a lot of hotel travel, but when I do, I will not stay at a Hyatt. Disgusting.

[minkrose]

This completely sucks. I've already paid for Andy & me to go to Arisia next year, and there's not point in having the passes if we aren't staying at the hotel. Nevermind that Arisia is the only for-me vacation I take all year, and I don't have any extra $$ to spend on other trips for myself right now. I certainly don't have the extra $$ to skip the con after I've already paid for it.

I'm already in the Arisia LJ group and I'll definitely be a part of anything that can be done to show displeasure with the Hyatt (letter writing, etc). But it's really not an option for me to boycott the entire con. At least I can avoid the Hyatt in the future!

[moechus.livejournal.com]

I've already paid for this coming Arisia and it's one of the few times I get to see an old friend from NJ. Last year, we booked too late and wound up staying at the Marriott. I have emailed her with the suggestion that we stay at the Marriott again regardless of the availability or rooms at the Hyatt. And I intend to avoid any food or drink at the Hyatt.