By Julie Wernau | At its first shareholders’ meeting as a public company Wednesday, Hyatt
Hotels Corp. faced protesters dressed as money-grubbing rats and dozens
of religious leaders who compared Hyatt’s labor practices to Pharaoh’s
enslavement of the Israelites.
The Chicago-based hotel chain, which is largely controlled by the
Pritzker family, went public in November and has been under fire by
government, religious and labor leaders since August when it fired 98
Hyatt housekeepers in Boston and replaced them with cheaper, outsourced
labor.
“These are my fat cats, and this is my rat,” said Jill Landrith, a hotel organizer from Arizona with the Unite Here hotel union, who was dressed as a cigar-smoking Penny Pritzker outside the Hyatt Regency at McCormick Place.
Beside her, another organizer wore a rat mask, while cigar-smoking “fat cats” yelled at workers to “get back to work” because “Penny needs her billions.”
Pritzker was among those standing for re-election to hotel chain’s board Wednesday. Shareholders were also there to vote on other perfunctory matters, none considered controversial. In a rare move for a public company, media were barred from attending the meeting.
Shareholders were asked to bring documentation proving their stake in the company and faced metal detectors as they entered the meeting, which was surrounded by hotel workers protesting, including workers from the hotel where the meeting was held.
Inside, a delegation of more than 100 religious leaders, mostly from the Chicago area, were stopped by security officers at metal detectors as they attempted to enter the meeting to speak with Hyatt management and shareholders. Hyatt security asked them to step away because they were “blocking a fire exit,” but the group refused to leave, demanding that they be allowed in to the meeting to address Hyatt shareholders and executives.
Carrying “bitter herbs” placed on Romaine lettuce, Barbara Penzner, a rabbi from Massachusetts, spoke out about the firing of the 98 Hyatt housekeepers in Boston.
“Like the Israelites of Egypt who suffered under Pharaoh, the workers of Hyatt are eating bitter herbs today,” she said.
In December, Penzner, along with 200 rabbis and cantors across the country, signed a petition calling on the Chicago-based hotel chain to rehire the housekeepers. The chain has not done so.
After several minutes of nearly 100 priests, rabbis and pastors singing Psalm 118:19 — “Open up for me the gates of justice. I will enter and praise the holy one” — Robb Webb, chief human resources officer for Hyatt, came out to meet the delegation.
He said Hyatt is dedicated as an organization to aiding its workers. He called the firing of the so-called “Hyatt 100″ a move that was “not consistent with the values of the company.”
“We’re not proud about how that was handled,” he said, adding that workers had been given the opportunity for retraining but would not be rehired as the firings were a difficult “business decision.”
Penzner asked Webb and the rest of the delegation to eat the bitter herbs as an act of solidarity with the workers. Webb complied.
“I gave my body — everything I have – to that hotel, and Hyatt disposed of us like we were trash,” said Lucine Williams, who worked at the Hyatt Regency Boston for 21 years before being fired in August. Williams traveled to Chicago and participated in the shareholder’s meeting as a proxy.
Rev. Calvin S. Morris of the Community Renewal Society in Chicago said the delegation had nothing against the business making a profit.
“We are concerned that in the drive for success, people are being exploited and harmed,” he said.
In Chicago, Hyatt’s employees are among 6,000 hotel workers at 31 hotels with contracts that expired in August. The two sides have been unable to reach an agreement, and Unite Here has accused Hyatt of using the economy as an excuse to try to lock workers into a five-year, contracted “recession.”
Morris said his mother was a housekeeper.
“The beds are big, they’re huge,” he said. “Bedspreads, all the stuff is heavy and people are injuring themselves working for the hotel industry.”
“I think it’s lack of respect,” said Cristian Saez, a banquet server at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, who left on break so he could stand with protesters. “…They want to lock us down for five years with a recession-type of contract when their shares have been going up steadily.”
Saez said in negotiations, the hotels brought forward a proposal that would increase workers’ health insurance co-pays. Saez said he is doing everything he can to pay down medical debt from hospital bills his family received after insurance refused to pay for medical equipment his son needed after he was born with a medical condition.
“The last four years we’ve been paying medical bills. I have medical bills over $10,000,” he said.
I would bet most of these rank and file folks blindly helped Penny Pritzker buy and lie her boy into the White House in 2008.
Pity they didn’t have brains amd spine enough to read her then.
Im am shocked. Penny, the socialist dimocrat not a big fan of labor? Oh that’s right, it means she would have to give up some of her cash. Oy
Why would 100 church going members try to raid a stock holders meeting closed to the public. To possibly cause trouble, and embarrassment. Why would a liberal newspaper report on such a non story?
Please climb out of mommy’s basement and get a taste of the real world instead of just throwing out snarky, ignorant comments. You’re a child to me.
why is it assumed that bringing a labor union into the workplace is a better thing? is hyatt a bad company to work for? do they not offer benefits? unions served their purpose in the past but most companies do fine without them. in some cases the hourly rate is lowered and benefits are lowered to meet the unions HIGH standards while the employee gets stuck paying union dues each month and not just the union employees but those employees who decide not to join the union who have the same job, is that fair? as for penny pritzker, why attack her? jealousy is a horrible thing. so what if she is rich, so what if she runs a profittable company good for her and more power to her for getting an education and doing something with her life and her wealth.
If working for Hyatt or any other hotel is so bad,find another job.Egads people.What,is a housekeeper supposed to get $50 an hour with a pension and free health care?Sorry,but we used to call these unskilled or entry level jobs.Minimum wage should be more then enough for these types of jobs.
I’m so over all these uneducated, unskilled hotel workers demanding ridiculous salaries. I want to vomit every time I walk by the Congress Hotel and see those whiny crybabies there.
BE THANKFUL YOU HAVE A JOB IN THIS ECONOMY! And in this country, since so many of these workers only know a few words in English, like “gimme.”
These people make it sound like a crime to make a profit.And to compare thier woes to the plight of the Jews,oh please!This is exactly why I do my best not to do business with union labor companies.
Here’s a few things that most people don’t know…
Penny Pritzker is in charge of Classic Residence by Hyatt, a chain of retirement communities, not Hyatt Hotels and Resorts. It is one of the businesses that the Pritzker family started but she is not involved in the hotels at all. Most Hyatt hotels have separate owners and Hyatt manages them for those owners. Hyatt takes a management fee but the profits, when there are profits, go to the owners.
Expect more SEIU Union thugs and their rent-a-mobs to protest as more and more companies decide to toss what ever union labor they can to stay in business and thrive.
If the union leaders want to run a hotel, buy your own damned hotel and pay the people whatever you choose to pay them. Take the risk of exposing your money to the risks of opening, running and growing a thriving business in all sorts of economic times.
With the permanent bust times we have coming under America’s first Mafia Don president, I can’t imagine an SEIU owned and operated business would survive for very long. They’re too used to government permitted extortion for their dollars.
Sounds to me as though Mr. Webb treated the protesters with far more respect than what was shown to his group.
Anyone paying attention to the industry in Chicago knows that the union is taking a very short-sighted approach for the purported benefit of their workers at the expense of poisoning the well long-term (recent McCormick Place legislation comes to mind).
It is a shame that the hotel unions have not learned the lessons from unions in other industries (Detroit for one) that contributed to bankruptcies due to outrageously lucrative benefit plans that were disproportionate to the economic environment. This hurt the very workers they were trying to assist.
For all the comments about Ms Pritzker, few people ever look at the salaries and perks of the top people in the heirarchy of these unions, who have built nothing and provided very few jobs that wouldn’t have already existed without them. Ms Pritzker and her family took a significant risk and built something to gain her money. Last time I checked, that was called the American Dream. Of course, in this current climate of neo-socialism, the protesters and union heads (with far less skin in the game) are looking for their entitlement programs.
wolfpack? is there a list of company’s that have unions so I can avoid them? I’m so sick of this…
Don’t like to change beds? Become a C++ programmer !
Dressing up in costumes and carrying items symbolic of their terrible oppression; what an embarrassing way for adults to act.
You mean to tell me that hotel housekeepers dont have great benefits…I am in total shock!.. I figured that these uneducated, unskilled workers would receive great pay and benefits just because they are able to organize into a union.
Cant someone just invent a machine that can do these jobs without complaining or waking me up in the morning knocking on my door and speaking broken English? Paris Hilton, im looking at you; please end the suffering of these poor people…
They HAD to dress up, otherwise the news media wouldn’t film/notice them.
Penny needs her money to get President Obama another 4 years, so the intelligent can be entertained by the perpetually ignorant commentary espoused by the right. Looking forward to another 4 years of Pres. Obama and the free entertainment provided by the angry, negative, hypocritical writhing of the right. May the right continue to age, your #’s cannot die off soon enough. Maybe the next generation will be able to make America the great place you promised it would be to your kids. Still trying to realize that American dream that has been wasted on bullets, big unregulated corporations and their lobby.
Simple: if you don’t like your job, find a new job. Problem solved.
Uh, Coachwad, I think that you are confused. This is the Chicago Tribune website. Somehow you must have been redirected from “The Daily Californian” website for UC Berkley. You better hurry up…you are going to miss your “Socialism in the 21st Century” lecture if you stay on the computer much longer.
I have not found any photos of her smoking a cigar but the wiki entry is fascinating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Pritzker
Born rich, very very very busy (i would hate all those meetings!) and got caught up in the subprime/banking mess. Lost a bunch of family holdings in a legal dispute with a cousin. Makes me happy to be poor!
Uh, Coachwad, I think that you are confused. This is the Chicago Tribune website. Somehow you must have been redirected from “The Daily Californian” website for UC Berkley. You better hurry up…you are going to miss your “Socialism in the 21st Century” lecture if you stay on the computer much longer.
Generally as a rule, it is important if you are starting a sentence to make a point, that you try not to start with Uh,
Might be a little more creditable. As for my residence, I live in town, was born and raised here, and hope I am your next door neighbor. That will be me cheering loudly in 2012 as President Obama keeps up the good work for another 4 years.
I’ll be partying right there with you!
["Like the Israelites of Egypt who suffered under Pharaoh, the workers of Hyatt are eating bitter herbs today," Penzner said.]
LOL…is this some kind of joke? All this because a bunch of overpaid cleaning ladies got canned?
fr wolfpack:
>…This is exactly why I do my best not to do business with union labor companies.
Chris Wadlington, great job discrediting CMS because he wrote the word “Uh”. I would like to praise you for confusing the word creditable instead of credible. I see the CPS has taught you well. Obama will be lucky to win IL since most of the CPS grads probably won’t be able to read his name on a ballot. We’ll be lucky to be alive here in Chicago in 2012 thanks to all of Obama’s voters shooting everyone here.
White Nemo | June 9, 2010 10:02 AM | Reply
I would bet most of these rank and file folks blindly helped Penny Pritzker buy and lie her boy into the White House in 2008.
Pity they didn’t have brains amd spine enough to read her then.
Pity this person has no brains and is an example of wingnut mania that can turn any story into anti-Obama whether it has anything to do with him or not.
“Just do it”, I’d rather change beds (or bedpans, or dig holes, etc.) than go back to being a C++ programmer. Ick.
Did White Nemo just call the first African American president “boy?”
White Nemo | June 9, 2010 10:02 AM | Reply
I would bet most of these rank and file folks blindly helped Penny Pritzker buy and lie her boy into the White House in 2008.
Seriously? Your world-view is no doubt limited by that slit in your pillowcase.
It is a shame the workers were fired – they shouls have been given a choice to take less pay or leave. It was a bad company decision on their part & I would hope Hyatt would be able to undo some of their damage. As for the unions interfering, they are dinosaurs in my opinion & are more hurtful than helpful. Look what happened to the automobile industry. They want to kepp Walmart out of the South side because Walmart may not pay their workers minimum wage. 1st, who knows what Walmart will do here & 2nd, it is none of their business. A person has a CHOICE to work there, no one is forcing him/her to do so, Bottom line, unions people please be quiet for now & be glad you are working in this economy or offer your job to one of trhe unemployed.
@look both ways, I don’t think that word ‘boy’ was used the way you thought it was. Calm down.
To the anti-union, anti-human rights crowd: These demonstrations are our FIRST amendment right. You remember rights don’t you? You always trot out your SECOND amenment rights anytime you feel like shooting someone or need to “defend” your homes and familes. Well, we’re defending OUR homes and families with our FIRST amendment rights, so stand aside. The Constitution works for us too. Even though you, apparently, wish it didn’t.
No respect whatsoever for these entitled drama queens.
Well, he did WORK for it. Would you feel better if he was down in Waco cuttin’ brush on a ranch bought with Mommy & Daddy’s money?
The bell captains are making 110,000 dollars each year at Hyatt Chicago.As a Hyatt employee, I can tell you that we get free health insurance, dental. Contributions if we need/want it for ongoing education or legal bills. Lunch free every single day in the cafeteria with a full salad bar and drink selections. Dessert too. 12 free room nights anywhere in the country. One day off during the month of your bday. 401k. Clean uniforms…dry cleaned every day for free.
Seriously, unemployment today indicated at 25 per cent if underemployed etc. were counted.People, quit and let these people in to appreciate your jobs.
Gotta get President(?) “57 or 58 states” in there to set everything right for fellow commie SEIU gangsters. Or, just send in his teleprompter, it is the one with the brain, thanks to George Soros, aka the head presidential puppetteer.
You know we only hear of Hyatt doing the firing, but look at all the other companies that have done the same and called it “downsizing” or “layoff” or whatever they feel like. I interviewed many years ago to work for the Pritzkers in their corporate office and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – the greatness of what they do, but the papers say other.