Two Hyatt workers spoke at Hyatt’s Annual Shareholders meeting today at the Hyatt O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois, as other workers picketed outside. Sonia Ordonez, who works at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, asked CEO Mark Hoplamazian and other Hyatt leaders to find out what it’s like to be a Hyatt housekeeper, by spending a day cleaning rooms. Cris Saez, a Banquet Waiter at Hyatt McCormick Place in Chicago, raised concerns about Hyatt’s use of subcontracted labor and its impact on guest service.

"My coworkers and I have watched as you fired the entire housekeeping staff at your Boston hotels and replaced them with workers from a temp agency, and we want to know if you plan to do the same in Chicago" asked Saez. "When guests come to Hyatt and pay Hyatt rates, they expect Hyatt service. I take a lot of pride in what I do as a banquet waiter, and there’s no way you can deliver 5-star service if you have a revolving door of banquet waiters and others staffing our hotels."

Last month, Lakayana and Nathan, two student leaders from Madison, Wisconsin, drove over 2,000 miles to Las Vegas, Nevada, to help out with an action at Stations Casino. When they arrived in Las Vegas they teamed up with Fatima and Jonathan, two Loyola Marymount students from Los Angeles who were fresh off their organizing victory with the food service workers on their campus.

Their work culminated in an exciting action when, on June 2nd, 150 people were arrested outside of a Stations Casino, and over 1,000 people came to support them. "Getting arrested was a very personal decision for many of the workers. For many, it was their first time being arrested, and they fought their fear to make sure they made a stance against injustice. It was quite powerful to witness so much courage," Fatima said.

Nathan compared his time in Vegas to his experience fighting the anti-union onslaught by his Governor in Wisconsin. "My time in Las Vegas has taught me how to turn people out before all of their rights are gone. It takes going to the casinos and having real conversations with the workers. It takes pushing leaders to achieve further than they thought they could. It takes tireless grinding every week. It takes open ears, perseverance, clear vision, and sheer force of will," he said.

Jonathan walked away from the action by saying he learned, "that in order to keep your rights, young people will have to start showing their support. They are the future leaders of the union and soon they will have to fight for their rights, too. Whether it’s at work or in school, the older people have to be the leaders and teachers of the young folk."

After the rally, Lakayana said "I liken my journey to Las Vegas, to riding a wave. I have ridden this wave from Wisconsin all the way down to Las Vegas, not knowing what I was going to find, but knowing it felt right. The rally this past Thursday has reaffirmed that I am still riding this wave, continuing to see and be a part of amazing events. It has strengthened my belief in the power of the people and our ability to overcome all odds, Si Se Puede!

Union hotel workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki voted to approve a boycott of their hotel on June 8, 2011.

The workers are fighting to defend and maintain their union contract standard that include putting an end to subcontracting and providing safe working conditions for workers.

Union contracts for over 500 hotel workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki originally expired on June 30, 2010. In the last year, workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki have participated in a civil disobedience action (July 2010), a one-day limited duration strike (September 2010), and numerous pickets and rallies in front of the Hyatt that most recently resulted in a demonstration in the Hyatt’s lobby (February of 2011). The vote represents the first time in five years that Local 5 members will have organized toward launching a consumer boycott of a major Oahu hotel. The consumer boycott of the Turtle Bay Hotel & Resort ended successfully in 2006.

On hundred Local 5 retirees braved the early morning rain in Waikiki on June 3 to walk the picket line in support of their brothers and sisters working at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki. The picket ended with the unveiling of a "Hyatt Unfair" banner 14 stories above. 

Their message to Hyatt workers, "We fight together, we win together!  Local 5 retirees will be out again tomorrow, June 8th as Hyatt workers take a vote to authorize a consumer boycott of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki.

Las Vegas, NV– On June 2, fired Latino workers from Station Casinos led members of the Culinary and Bartenders unions in the city’s largest civil disobedience in over a decade to protest the company’s treatment and firing of Latino workers. The large protest came as Station Casinos completes the final stages of its bankruptcy restructuring. Over 1000 people rallied while 150 were arrested after they sat down in two Sahara Avenue traffic lanes in front of Palace Station near Interstate 15 and not far from the Las Vegas Strip.

The protest included street theater to draw attention to the company’s treatment of Latino workers, failure to provide wage increases and retirement contributions, and higher costs for worker health plans.

Station Casinos is the subject of the largest Unfair Labor Practice case ever filed against a Nevada gaming company by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Many of the government’s 197 charges against the company affect Latino workers. Eight of the ten worker organizers who have been fired by Station Casinos are Latino; two have since been reinstated. Over 90 percent of the workers who were called by the government to testify against the company are Latino.

The government has charged the company with allegedly using tactics including harassment, threats, retaliatory firings and disciplines, and the solicitation of customer complaints to impede worker efforts to form a union. The government’s seven-month prosecution of the company ended in May and, in a surprise move, Station Casinos called no witnesses in its defense. During the course of the trial, the government’s charges against the company grew from 168 to 197 alleged violations of federal labor laws. A decision in the case is expected later this year.

Teresa Debellonia was one of the workers fired by Station Casinos after she began exercising her right to form a union. After the NLRB charged the company with allegedly retaliating against her because of her union activity and appearance as a government witness in the NLRB’s case against Station Casinos, the company reinstated her with back pay and no loss of seniority. "I am a mother and I want a better future for my children," said Debellonia, a Guest Room Attendant at Green Valley Ranch Resort Casino. "I’m happy to be back at work, but I want Station Casinos to treat its workers equally and fairly."

In light of the Strauss-Kahn and other assault controversies, housekeepers in cities across North America hold public events, speaking out against abuses at work.

On June 2, hotel housekeepers in eight cities across the country held coordinated speak-outs to break the silence on the dangers of their jobs, calling on the thousands of housekeepers across the country to do the same. Inspired by the courageous stand taken by the housekeepers in New York against some of the most powerful men in the world, housekeepers are coming forward to share their own stories and launch a campaign to break the silence about the routine sexual misconduct and other forms of abuse that housekeepers face at work.

Hotel housekeepers–overwhelmingly women, immigrants, and people of color–are the invisible backbone of the hotel industry. While incidents of sexual assault are uncommon, women routinely face indecent exposure and other indignities from male guests. Housekeepers have come forward with stories from across North America that reveals a pervasive pattern of harassment and unsafe working conditions for the women who work in the hotel industry.

Sexual assault is one of a range of hazards that housekeepers experience. The rate of injury among hotel workers is 25 percent higher than among service workers overall. Among hotel workers, housekeepers have the highest rate of injury—50 percent higher than hotel workers overall.

"It’s dangerous work," said Yazmin Vazquez, who works at a hotel in downtown Chicago. "These customers think they can use us for anything they want, because we don’t have the power that they have or the money that they have."

Standing together, housekeepers are also demonstrating that a union is a powerful tool for workers when harassment and other hazards occur. In New York and elsewhere, many safety measures are already in place for union hotel workers, who know they can report incidents to their superiors without the fear of reprisal.

As part of the action, housekeepers are recommending a number of common sense preventative measures to help them feel safer, such as increased security staff, working in teams, and replacing the traditional dress uniform with a pants and tunic uniform. In addition, the union fully supports the legislation recently introduced in the New York State legislature to provide panic buttons to employees to use in case of emergency.

See below for links to news and videos.

• Post-DSK, New York hotels revisit staff protection, June 8, 2011. Reuters
• Hotel workers unleash their fury on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, June 7, 2011. The Guardian
• Housekeeper Will Testify on Sex Assault, Lawyer Says, June 6, 2011. New York Times
• Housekeepers protest as Strauss Kahn arrives at New York court, June 6, 2011. Washington Post
• There Once Was a Union Maid, June 6, 2011. American Prospect
• Hotel Housekeepers Share Tales of Sexual Harassment, June 3, 2011. ABC
• Hotel workers demand bosses protect against assault from guests, June 3, 2011. Globe and Mail
• Accusations Of Sexual Attacks On Housekeepers Could Change Hotel Security, June 3, 2011, KTVU
• Hotel Housekeepers Demand Security Amidst Naked Guests, Assaults, June 3, 2011. Fox
• Arizona Hotel Workers Speak Out Against Guest Misconduct, June 3, 2011. Public News Service
• After IMF chief scandal, Hyatt workers protest sex abuse, June 2, 2011, San Antonio Express-News
• Housekeepers speak out about safety concerns they face on the job, June 2, 2011. WGN
• Hotel workers speak out about sexual abuse, June 2, 2011. ABC Chicago
• After Hotel Attacks: Panic Buttons, June 1, 2011. Wall Street Journal
• In New Case, Boss Is Suspended for Not Reporting Housekeeper’s Abuse Claim, May 31, 2011. New York Times
• Did Housekeeper’s Union Membership Allow Her to Speak Out Against Strauss-Kahn?, May 25, 2011. In These Times
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the union maid, May 24, 2011. The Guardian
• NY Case Shows Daily Dangers Faced By Hotel Maids, May 21, 2011. NPR
• In wake of Strauss-Kahn arrest, hotel housekeepers say jobs often make them wary, May 21, 2011. Washington Post
• For Hotel Housekeepers, Sexual Affronts Are a Known Hotel Hazard, May 20, 2011. New York Times

Employees of the W Boston and the Back Bay Hotel have overwhelmingly voted to unionize, bringing the number of organized workers at Boston hotels to about 4,000, roughly 60 percent of all full-service hotel workers.

Around 200 housekeepers, bellhops, restaurant staff, valets, and maintenance workers at the two hotels are now members of UNITE HERE Local 26, the Boston division of the national hospitality workers union. Union officials said membership gives the workers a pension plan, low-cost health insurance, and a limit on the number of rooms they have to clean every day.

"It equalizes the playing field for hotels, and it gives workers the ability to question management without fear of retribution," said Brian Lang, president of Local 26.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

A group of Local 35 members traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 12 to join in a rally with Harvard campus dining workers who are members of UNITE HERE Local 26.

Workers, students and community allies marched through Harvard Yard following a meeting between Harvard University officials and Local 26 as part of the union’s contract negotiations. At the rally, the Local 35 delegation had an opportunity to talk about the differences between the Yale and Harvard contracts.

Local 26 President Brian Lang called union members’ achievements in New Haven "a source of inspiration." Local 35 President Bob Proto encouraged the Harvard workers to fight for important gains in their next contract, noting that "there’s a standard of quality of jobs that Harvard needs to raise up to Yale’s."

Click here to read the article in The Harvard Crimson.

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) Host union members ratified a new three-year agreement which merges two separate contracts into one agreement. The new contract includes wage increases, stronger seniority and working hours language, and real coveted job security for the 200-plus airport concessions, retail and warehouse workers. A strong union committee in in sync with both local and international union coordination paved a way to a historic contract.

Learn more about UNITE HERE Local 40 here.

Workers at the Sheraton Station Square in Pittsburgh are celebrating the settlement of a new contract. The four-year agreement was overwhelmingly ratified by the Sheraton workers 71 to 15 on Friday, May 13th.

The agreement includes wage increases, a back pay bonus, and preserves the health plan while limiting increases for the amount of money workers contribute. The agreement also includes: a one dollar increase for each additional room housekeepers do to $6 per room, increases to baggage handling and amenity delivery payments for bell staff, increased late-night pay for banquet servers, and the inclusion of “domestic partner” in the bereavement pay language.