UNITE HERE Local 25: Hotel Workers’ Union Calls for Boycott of Grand Hyatt Washington
2024年8月3日 - 3:50AM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
Workers will picket the hotel with a giant
inflatable rat every morning at 7AM beginning Monday, August
5th
UNITE HERE Local 25, the hospitality workers
union, has called for a boycott of the Grand Hyatt Washington.
Workers will picket the hotel daily beginning Monday, August 5th
accompanied by a giant inflatable rat.
UNITE HERE Local 25 organizers have been meeting with workers at
the Grand Hyatt, and earlier this month, the Union filed an unfair
labor practice charge alleging that Grand Hyatt management
illegally surveilled and intimidated workers as they were meeting
with organizers. UNITE HERE Local 25 has also filed a wage theft
complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor, alleging that Grand
Hyatt subcontractor J&B Cleaning is paying below minimum wage
for cleaning work done at the Grand Hyatt. The Union picketed the
hotel on Tuesday, July 23.
“We are calling on guests to not sleep, eat, or meet at the
Grand Hyatt,” said Paul Schwalb, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of
UNITE HERE Local 25.
The Grand Hyatt Washington is one of the largest non-union
hotels in Washington, D.C., and hosts a large number of federal
government events, including the Department of Energy, Department
of Commerce, U.S. Army, Department of Health and Human Services,
and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Other non-union Hyatt
hotels in the D.C.-area are also used regularly by the federal
government, like the Hyatt Regency Bethesda, which is frequently
used for conferences by NIH and other federal health agencies.
In addition to the Grand Hyatt, multiple hotels operated by
Hyatt in the D.C. metro area are involved in labor disputes with
Local 25 over their alleged violations of federal labor law and
union-busting campaign. After over 70% of Hyatt Regency Crystal
City housekeepers signed union authorization cards, workers filed
for a union election on Friday, July 12th. Hyatt Crystal City
workers are organizing for respect on the job, higher pay and
benefits, and fair workloads. The overwhelming majority of them are
immigrants. Shortly after the workers filed for election, Hyatt
management commenced an anti-union campaign inside the hotel.
As the worker organizing spreads from the Hyatt Crystal City and
the Grand Hyatt Washington and workers begin to organize at the
Park Hyatt, Hyatt Regency Tysons, Hyatt Regency Reston, Hyatt
Regency Dulles, Hyatt Centric Arlington and Hyatt Regency Bethesda,
federal employees may be forced to choose whether to cross picket
lines late in a tense political cycle.
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts is largely owned by the prominent
Democratic Party Pritzker family. Penny Pritzker is a high-level
appointee of the Biden Administration as Special Representative for
Ukraine’s Economic Recovery, and the Penny Pritzker Family Trust
owns Hyatt stock worth 10.8% of total voting power. The Hyatt
Crystal City is jointly owned by Hyatt and the Gould Property
Company, a powerful local development group. The Grand Hyatt
Washington is owned by Host Hotels, one of the largest owners of
hotels in the country.
The Hyatt organizing drive comes amidst a wave of new hotel
organizing in the D.C. region and a historic contract victory for
union D.C. hotel workers. Just last week, housekeepers at the Royal
Sonesta Dupont Circle won union recognition. Last month, D.C. hotel
workers overwhelmingly ratified a new contract that will see wages
increase to $33 an hour by 2028, protect workers’ free health
insurance, increase pension benefits, and preserve good,
pre-pandemic working conditions.
UNITE HERE Local 25 is a hospitality workers union that
represents 6,500 workers in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Local 25
members are primarily immigrants and women of color.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240802080927/en/
Media Contact: Benjy Cannon bcannon@local25now.org
202-714-1567