Hyatt workers in Chicago are preparing to go on strike on Friday over unsuccessful contract negotiations.
The work stoppage, which is planned for an undisclosed Hyatt hotel in the Chicago area, will be the first strike of its magnitude since contracts for 6,000 hotel workers in Chicago expired in August 2009. Unionized hotel workers have staged other protests during the protracted contract negotiations, including brief walkouts at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers and the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago. Unite Here, the union representing hospitality workers, has focused on Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. and the Pritzker family, which controls the chain.
“The company is trying to make the recession permanent for its employees, despite significantly improving industry conditions and Hyatt’s increased profitability and huge cash reserves,” Unite Here said in a statement.
Chicago is just one of several cities included in a number of coordinated pre-Labor Day protests, which kicked off on Thursday with strikes at Hyatt properties in Honolulu and Los Angeles. Workers in Boston, Indianapolis and Toronto, among other cities, will also be engaged in protest activities on Friday.
Hyatt issued a statement saying the company has been negotiating contracts in good faith and decrying the union’s “disruptive tactics.”
“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 attempt to disrupt business at multiple Hyatt hotels,” the company said. “This delay is unfortunate, and work actions are damaging to the still very fragile economy in our local communities.”
LOOK LIKE JOBS ARE GOING TO BE AVAILABLE ON FRIDAY!!!!!! GOOD TIME TO CUT THE LEGS OF A REAL USELESS UNION!!!!!!
I really hate unions. IF YOU WERE CONTRIBUTING GREAT VALUE TO THE COMPANY YOU WORK FOR THEY WOULD PAY YOU MORE. YOU ARE NOT. GET OVER IT.
Sign painting tonite – my house.
Let’s hit the bricks boys, we’ll bring ‘em to their knees!!!!!
YOU ARE SO RIGHT CHRIS…
THESE BIG COMPANIES ARE ALL ABOUT A FAIR WAGE FOR THE GUY OR GAL DOING THE WORK. YOU SEE IT EVERYDAY. WHEN IT COMES TO EXECUTIVE PAY. NOT SO MUCH. JUST REMEMBER CHRSS CORPORATIONS ARE ALL ABOUT PEOPLE AND DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE.
NOW GO BACK TO YOUR COMIC BOOKS BECAUSE THE SPACE SHIP IS COMMING TO PICK YOU UP. AND DON’T FORGET TO PUT ON YOUR NEW NIKES.
Get rid of all unions. What do you want to get paid for cleaning toilets and changing beds. If they didn’t have to fork over their union dues they would have more take home pay. But then the unions wouldn’t be able to finance all those democrooks for reelection.
Govthieves
You should have called your self Union thieves because that is what union worker’s are. They feel they are entitled. I have a brother in the carpenter’s union, he is always looking for a way to make money off the company without giving any work to get it.
Unions are no longer viable, time to move on. Oh wait, you might have to do some real work.
This union lost my support when they decided during their last strike, to sit down in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in the area during rush hour. For some reason, the Oak Brook police decided not to break it up for several hours. If you don’t want to work, that’s your choice. But don’t stop me from working.
This isn’t just a strike against the hotels but the cities that rely on the room taxes and sales taxes from these businesses. This will have a negative effect on many workers who are barely getting by now.
The hotel should bite the bullet and replace all workers. There are too may wanting work for this to be allowed. People are losing their homes and going hungry and these people are walking away from jobs.
Penny Pritzker…calling her “union puppet-man” in the White House right now!
WHY NOT HAVE ICE PAY THE UNION HALL A VISIT!!!!
VAMANAOS AMIGO’S and AMIGA’S !!!!!
I’m all for a strike if pay is actually under market price… but I hope that anyone who offers their services for less than the strikers are allowed to be employed then. Strikers should not intimidate or threaten those who “break the line”. And if others are willing to work for less pay, then clearly strikers are asking for pay that is above market price, feeling as though they are entitled. I tend to believe most unions are wayyyy overpaid. As far as those who hate the terrible corporate leaders who only look out for a bottom line… ask yourself this: Do you work for free? If you don’t, why are you asking them to? And do you understand that the people getting paid millions to run the company certainly bring in more money than they get paid? Because if they didn’t, they would be fired too. Just a thought…
Hey Kristen,
Nobody is asking for the corporate leaders to go without pay. From what I can tell, the union members seem to be asking to not get stuck with a wage freeze and have their benefits cut. That seems entirely reasonable to me. In any case, it’s a one-day work stoppage, everyone on here advocating Hyatt to fire everyone and replace them non-union has an insane idea of what it would cost to replace and retrain 6,000 employees all at once. Get your heads out of the sand, this union has some power and they are using it for their interest, just like the corporate leaders use what power they have for their interest.
i agree we should get rid of the union specially local u unite here the noney they areasking for isnt worth it the dues will go up and the hospitaly business is very seanson. i am one that will cross the picket line