NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2009
Hyatt workers sit in
Chicago--Hundreds of hotel and restaurant workers and their supporters demonstrated in front of the Park Hyatt Hotel near the historic Water Tower on Sept. 24. The demonstration was organized by Local 1 of UNITE HERE in support of 6,000 hotel workers negotiating a new contract in Chicago, and in support of the 100 Hyatt housekeeping workers in Boston who were recently fired.
Up to 200 people were arrested when they sat down to block the street as an act of civil disobedience. They were peaceful but determined. Most participants wore red shirts that said, "We are not afraid!" on one side and, on the other, had the name of one of the large hotels that were represented--the Drake, Hilton, Congress and Sheraton among them.
The hotel industry has been cutting staff, forcing more overtime and speed-up from remaining workers, and avoiding benefit payments. Healthcare benefits are a major issue. One Latina worker said, "It is a good idea to be out here today. It's our benefits. They want to cut out coverage of our health insurance." Another Latino worker said, "They would like to give us a five-year contract with a 1% raise. They're playing dirty. They're making all this money from us, but we don't see it."
Earlier, a delegation led by Angela Norena, one of the fired housekeepers from Boston, had appealed to Penny Pritzker--of the billionaire Chicago Pritzker family and a Hyatt Hotel director--to reinstate the fired Boston workers. Pritzker refused to answer them.
The very diverse crowd of Black, Latino, Asian and white workers and supporters at the demonstration chanted "Si se puede! Yes we can!" Spirits were high. You could read the determination in the faces of everybody there. In the words of one Black woman worker, "It was a fantastic display of the power of people when they come together."
--Gerry Emmett
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