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KHON2: Hundreds of Hyatt Hotel workers protest management (9/2/2010)
Hundreds of Hyatt Waikiki employees walked off the job today.
It was part of a one day strike against the hotel.
Workers say they want hotel management to stop outsourcing their jobs and want their fair share for their hard work.
“What we want to do is keep quality work in the islands and service our guests with the aloha spirit,” said Suzanne Benson, who has worked at the Hyatt for 26 years.
The hotel issued a statement saying they have pursued union contract negotiations for about a year. They say it is the union leadership that has chosen to stage demonstrations rather than meet at the bargaining table.
Honolulu Star Advertiser: Hyatt hotel employees strike for a day over new contract
Management hires 100 temporary workers to maintain operations at the Waikiki resort (9/3/2010)
Workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki are staging a one-day strike today, saying that talks with management have gone nowhere.
The protest began at 3:30 a.m. and will last until about 9:30 p.m., according to Cade Watanabe, community and political organizer for the UNITEHERE! Local 5 union, which represents 501 workers at the hotel on Kalakaua Avenue.
Workers authorized the “limited duration strike” last week, he said this morning.
Watanabe said it is one of many pre-Labor Day protests nationally against Hyatt. He said the company is trying to subcontract union jobs and “ship jobs out of state,” including in the accounting department, even though it is doing well financially. “We’re trying to preserve good quality jobs,” he said.
Hyatt executives have pursued contract negotiations in good faith for nearly a year, according to a hotel statement released today.
“While we have come to expect a certain amount of union posturing during negotiations, we are disappointed that rather than engaging in productive negotiations at the bargaining table … the union is choosing instead to once again disrupt business in Oahu,” the statement said. “This delay in negotiations and work stoppage can only have a destructive result for our employees, our guests, and the economy.”
The union has staged two other protests against the hotel this summer, including on July 22 when dozens of union members and their supporters were arrested for blocking traffic in Waikiki. Watanabe said workers will be back on the job at 10 p.m.
Honolulu Star Advertiser: Hyatt hotel employees strike for a day over new contract
Management hires 100 temporary workers to maintain operations at the Waikiki resort (9/3/2010)
Workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa went on a one-day strike yesterday to protest working conditions and other issues.
Hyatt employees and supporters walked picket lines at the 1,229-room hotel, starting in the pre-dawn hours.
Hyatt General Manager David Lewin said the strike did not affect service. The hotel had hired 100 temporary workers to maintain operations while management pitched in to make beds and park cars to cover for absent workers.
The work stoppage was the third organized union action this year by Unite Here Local 5. The union represents 501 Hyatt workers of a total work force of 725.
The contract for the Hyatt workers expired June 30. Lewin said talks with resume Oct. 14. The protest was expected to last until about 9:30 p.m., according to Cade Watanabe, community and political organizer for Local 5. Workers were expected to return to their jobs for the 10 p.m. shift, he said.
“Hyatt is the starkest example of an owner of a hotel that has been using the economy as an excuse to lock workers into a permanent recession,” Watanabe said. “As the visitor industry rebounds and as the economy recovers, there’s no reason why workers should be left behind.” While occupancy at the Hyatt is near peak levels, room rates have been discounted as much as 25 percent since 2008, Lewin said.
“Business is better, but it’s not back,” he said. “Also those customers, they’re not going to the spa and having a massage or going to a restaurant and eating. Their disposable income is much different today than it was two years ago.”
Lewin calls the union’s tactics “sad and pathetic” since the parties have met only twice to put contract proposals on the table.
Among practices the union takes issue with is the hotel subcontracting work out of state. Hyatt approached the union 18 months ago about eliminating three positions in the accounting department, according to Lewin.
Another recurring issue on the union’s contract agenda has been workload.
“The workload is overwhelming. They’re just stacking up jobs on top of other jobs,” said Jonathan Ybanez, a Hyatt utility steward. “I feel overlooked and unappreciated.”
The union has had two other protests against the hotel this summer, including on July 22 when dozens of members and their supporters were arrested for allegedly blocking traffic in Waikiki.
“It’s not the vacation we were expecting,” said Florida resident Lily Ngo, a first-time Hawaii visitor who was waiting next to the picket line for a tour bus yesterday with her husband, Tan. “Hawaii to me seemed like a paradise place — peaceful, quiet, friendly.It’s not as peaceful a resort area.
Hawaii News Now: Local 5 Strikes Hyatt Regency Waikiki (9/3/2010)
Hundreds of Waikiki hotel workers staged what they called a short-duration strike against one hotel Thursday, as hotel contract talks across the United States grow more tense.
Local 5 of the UNITE-HERE union struck the Hyatt Regency Waikiki, one of the larger properties on Waikiki’s Kalakaua Ave., and one striker said the walkout would last one day.
“They’re trying to negotiate a permanent recession for the workers,” said Jonathan Ybanez, who has worked at the Hyatt for 13 years. “They show no respect.”
Local 5 recently opened contract talks with Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood and Marriott hotels in Waikiki, and other locals of the same union are engaged in negotiations in San Francisco, Chicago and other mainland cities.
The recent recession has made the current round of contract talks tricky for labor and management alike. UNITE-HERE contract negotiators want wage increases without benefit concessions for workers many of whom had their hours curtailed during the recession, while bargainers on the management side face pressure from investment groups that bought large stakes in hotel chains with borrowed money and now want higher profits to help them pay down their debt.
“We all hope that we’ll eventually be able to reach mutually beneficial agreements that will be good for our employees,” Chris Tatum, the new chairman of the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association, said in a live appearance Thursday on Hawaii News Now Sunrise. Tatum is the regional senior vice president for Marriott International.
No quick agreement is expected. Both labor and management often find it expedient to settle mainland contracts first, so that higher wages in Waikiki don’t complicate negotiations in markets where both room rates and the cost of living may be lower.
KITV: Hyatt Regency Waikiki Hit With 1-Day Strike Union Accuses Hotel of Subcontracting, Outsourcing Jobs (9/3/2010)
Workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki are hitting the hotel with a one-day strike. Their union, Unite Here Local 5, said the job action began at 3:30 a.m. Thursday and is set to end at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
The union members authorized the “limited duration strike” last week.
Union official Cade Watanabe said Hyatt is trying to subcontract union jobs and “ship jobs out of state.” He said the union is trying to preserve good quality jobs.
The company told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Hyatt executives have pursued contract negotiations in good faith for nearly a year.
Hyatt said it’s disappointed that rather than engaging in negotiations at the bargaining table, the union is choosing instead to disrupt business.
Chicago Tribune: Hotel workers strike hits Hyatt Regency O-Hare Unite Here labor union coordinates one-day walkouts in 4 cities (9/3/2010)
Hotel workers organized by the national Unite Here labor union wished Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. a happy Labor Day by walking off their jobs in four North American cities Thursday and Friday.
The coordinated one-day strikes, which included a Friday walkout at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, were orchestrated by Unite Here to protest cuts in health care benefits and raises despite improving results in the hotel industry, organizers said.
Chicago Hyatt Hotel employees, working without a contract since this time last year, joined Hyatt workers in Honolulu, Los Angeles and Toronto in staging walkouts.
Unite Here spokeswoman Annemarie Strassel said the union is in multiple contract negotiations with the big three hotel companies: Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide INC., Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt. But it chose to target Hyatt because the Chicago-based chain, which is controlled by the wealthy Pritzker family, has made “the most regressive proposals.”
The union’s line in press releases around the country is that Hyatt is trying to forge new contracts that will “make the recession permanent for its employees, despite significantly improving industry conditions.”
In a statement, the company said, “While we have come to expect a certain amount of union posturing during negotiations, we are disappointed that rather than engaging in productive negotiations at the bargaining table, the union is choosing instead to disrupt business at Hyatt Regency O’Hare.”
The union said about 8,000 hotel workers at more than 30 Starwood, Hilton and Hyatt hotels across Chicago have been without contracts since Aug. 31, 2009, when their agreements expired. Workers have staged brief walkouts since then at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers and the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago.
The union complains that despite a rebound in the hotel industry over the past year, the companies are still holding back. Strassel wouldn’t comment on specific negotiating proposals, but George Paredes, a 47-year-old cook at the Hyatt O’Hare, said the company wants to freeze raises for the next five years and stop offering health care for the families of new workers.
Hyatt results have improved substantially over the past year. The company’s cash flow jumped 17.1 percent in the first half of 2010, to $247 million from $211 million during the same period a year ago. Revenue per available room, a key measure of health in the hotel industry, increased 9.7 percent in the first half.
Paredes said the standoff is not so much emotional as it is necessary, so the company doesn’t try to use the recession to lock in a cost structure that ensures scant pay increases, a lack of family insurance and chronic understaffing.
“This is professional, not personal,” he said.
KHON2: Hundreds of Hyatt Hotel workers protest management (9/2/2010)
Hyatt workers stage short walkouts in L.A., Hawaii Chicago Business, 9/2/2010, See,
Union workers at Hyatt hotels in Honolulu and the Los Angeles area are staging brief strikes amid an impasse in labor contract talks with Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp.
Hyatt employees at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and the Andaz West Hollywood walked off the job Thursday, part of a wave of demonstrations that hotel workers union Unite Here is staging across North America this week to put pressure on the hotel chain and the Pritzker family, its primary owners.
“Hyatt is looking for major concessions despite the fact that the economy is rebounding and the company has huge cash reserves,” says a spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 1, which represents hotel workers in downtown Chicago.
In a statement, Hyatt says it has been negotiating in “good faith” with the union.
“While we have come to expect a certain amount of union posturing during negotiations, we are disappointed that rather than engaging in productive negotiations at the bargaining table, which is the only way we will reach resolution on issues important to our associates and to us, the union is choosing instead to attempt to disrupt business at multiple Hyatt hotels,” the company says.
The union plans similar walkouts Friday at other Hyatt hotels, including one in the Chicago area, according the Local 1 spokeswoman. The union didn’t release the name of the local hotel.
Unite Here represents about 500 workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and 130 at the Andaz. The labor contract for the Honolulu hotel expired in June, while the Andaz pact ran out in November. Hyatt is seeking “very minimal or no raises” for union employees and reductions in health care coverage, the union spokeswoman says.
“There’s been no progress made,” she says.
Unite Here workers staged walkouts at the Hyatt Regency Chicago for a few hours in May and picketed briefly Tuesday outside the Chicago Sheraton Hotel & Towers to protest working conditions at the downtown hotels.
The protests at the Honolulu and West Hollywood hotels will also be of “limited duration,” but they are aimed at drawing attention to the contract talks, the union spokeswoman says.
