All housekeepers affected by August staff reductions at the three Hyatt hotels in Boston will be offered new full-time positions in the Boston market. The jobs, which will be provided by an affiliate of United Service Companies, will match the employees’ previous Hyatt rate of pay through the end of 2010. The Boston Hyatt hotels will extend healthcare coverage through March 31, 2010 for the employees who choose to accept positions with United Service Companies, after which they will have the option to obtain health care benefits through their new employer.
“We are committed to supporting all of our associates, especially when they are negatively affected by business decisions made necessary by the most difficult economic environment in decades,” said Phil Stamm, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Boston and chair of a local Hyatt management task force formed to assist the displaced workers. “Every housekeeping employee who wants a job will have one. That’s our promise.”
Affected employees who wish to pursue a different employment path are being offered career services and training opportunities through a partnership Hyatt has formed with Manpower and Right Management. Employees opting to participate in the career services and retraining program will receive financial support equal to their Hyatt rate of pay through March 2010 or until they secure permanent jobs, whichever comes first. “We’re pleased to be able to support our employees with retraining and job search assistance provided by a highly respected employment and placement firm,” said Stamm.
“We are meeting with these individuals to fully explain their options, answer their questions and ease the transition,” said Michael Hickey, general manager of Hyatt Regency Cambridge, also a member of the task force. “The task force we set up accomplished what we set out to do. We believe the creative solutions we’re offering are responsive to the concerns expressed throughout our community, and are consistent with Hyatt’s core values as well as our responsibility to manage our properties prudently in this very difficult economy.”
“We sincerely hope these efforts demonstrate the respect we have for our associates and renew the community’s faith in Hyatt. Contrary to the way our actions have been characterized by many, we did attempt to implement this staffing change in a respectful manner and many of the assertions that have been made are false. We do, however, recognize and regret that we did not handle all parts of the transition in a way that reflects our organization’s values,” said Stamm.
AmberPaw will continue to monitor before making any further comments. I still am displeased w/Hyatt and the amount of pressure and the public relations disaster it took to get this far – with Hyatt still calling the housekeepers…or someone else? Who? liars “….many of the assertions that have been made are false.”
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p>I also suggest that any employees offered the chance to unionize do so. Period.
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p>Of note – not one penny given up by upper management as far as the eye can see. They need not suffer if the economy is sour; just their dependent lower level staffers.
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p>I don’t regret one word I wrote here on BMG 9/21/09: http://vps28478.inmotionhosting.com/~bluema24/d…
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p>Someone should post the details of what Hyatt did to persuade those housekeepers not to unionize not all that long ago…
Couldn’t agree more with what AmberPaw posted above. Thanks to all who signed out petition at hyattboycott.com.
But….I would imagine tricks like this are happening all over the country. One of the reasons we are losing the middle class, these people have to start all over and with that are now in the 300% of poverty level or less or slightly higher (which is worse). Long time employess are getting laid off, then replaced with lower payed newbies.
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p>And that’s the business model for keeping those corporate billion dollar profits a constant.
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p>I am totally thrilled that the Governor did this. Of course, you only have a few of those “do this or else” cards available before they lose their punch. I think using one for this circumstance was a good call. It shows that he is paying attention, pops outside of the bubble once in while, is distressed by what he sees, and won’t put up with it. Almost makes me feel like he has our backs. Don’t usually feel that in today’s government atmosphere.
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p>Thank You Governor Patrick!
of hotels. It made many others realize it is time to draw a line in the sand, and they did. Hyatt had no alternative but to make better arrangements.
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p>But, I don’t think they are doing enough, not for me, not by a long shot. They had a group of dedicated, long term workers, and now they outsource that work to a company who hires as needed. Who would you trust in your hotel room while you were at dinner?
Let’s face it — this move is cheap and face-saving for Hyatt– it is NOT giving these hard-working folks their Hyatt jobs back. It’s essentially a promise of a short-term stipend for 14 months or so. They lose the opportunity to receive access to Hyatt’s retirement program and other employee benefits which a corporation of Hyatt’s size and scope provides. They’ve lost their seniority and are starting at the bottom for the purposes of choosing shifts and vesting — if this “affiliate of United Service Companies” offers anything to vest in.
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p>I hope that Deval steps up and does the right thing again — and says “not good enough.”
They’ve already blown it. Although it’s not as good as getting their original jobs back, at least it’s a little support for those who were affected. More than others will get who have this same shameless thing done to them.
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p>Wonder what’s going to happen in 2010 when the salary guarantee expires. Have no clue what they make now, but it could be a substatial cut. Then what will happen, who knows? And will we even hear about it?
How much face can you save when it’s covered in egg?
First, I wonder if Hyatt has ever run an ad in the Globe or NYT? It’s times like these that I think advertising as a means to prop up journalism can fail; news companies don’t want to come out too strongly against potential clients. Don’t want to stir the pot too much, from their perspective.
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p>This really bugs me, though:
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p>Sorry, Globe, the Gov was absolutely right — and he’d have been right to do the same thing if it were a construction company or bank, too. Those employees were Massachusetts citizens and the Governor protected them — sometimes that can be more important than a few dollars and cents.
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p>If there are companies that are practicing horrible business practices toward their employees (or costumers), then the state should use their influence to make changes. We don’t always have to go through the long sausage-making process of changing the law in ways that would be difficult to define. So, if a Governor sees a hotel use its employees to train their replacements, then dump them on the street — we should absolutely make the threat Governor Patrick made. Same thing with a bank or construction company. If it would be more costly to piss our state off to a company than treat workers or consumers poorly, we should add that extra incentive to these companies to do the right thing.
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p>Jobs are continually outsourced and companies are routinely anti-union — even if they’re already profitable. Plenty of profitable companies have already done what Hyatt did. It’s hard to legislate against that or prevent it. Individual consumers aren’t really big enough alone to create a big enough threat to make changes the vast majority of the time. A big party, such as a state government, has that muscle and could potentially cost a company more through a boycott of any extended duration than retaining the slightly more expensive, good union jobs.
Those long term house cleaners had shown they were capable of being trusted around other people’s possessions. This DOES make a difference to me, and at this point, I no longer have a sense of safety and security with regard to Hyatt and the amount of “due diligence” I plan to routinely use about facilities and accommodations has become more extensive.
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p>So, yes it IS about fairness – and the fact that removing one fat cat at the top probably would have saved more money than throwing all these loyal employees on the scrap heap – but also Hyatt has been degraded and cheapened in my estimation.
wished I had thought of that!
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p>There is much more incentive to keep a job when you have a decent salary and health benefits…
These people aren’t getting their jobs back. They’re getting six months of healthcare and a little more than a year’s worth of severance — which they will have to work for — while they look for another job.
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p>I’m going to continue to boycott Hyatt until they actually get their jobs back. That’s the only acceptable solution.
it helps take some of the sting away from the bad press and helps limit the damage in terms of lost costumers, including from this state’s government.
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p>Not only did those people lose their jobs, but those good jobs are now gone forever. 10 years from now, Hyatt will still be paying their housekeepers half of what the union jobs were getting, probably with no (or much worse) benefits, too.
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p>So, yes, I’m glad we could help these people — and I’m glad Deval Patrick was able to do something about this situation — but it is just a band aid. I would not at all be sad if the Governor decided to insist the boycott was on until Hyatt brought back the old jobs and kept it unionized.
…and has been hostile to organizing, to put it mildly. And yes, those decent jobs are “gone for ever” – as is any trust I had in Hyatt facilities or anyone involved in Hyatt upper management.
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p>The outsourced provider isn’t providing decent jobs – the Georgia company [pays fifty cents over minimum wages. It does not provide ANY benefits, no sick time, no vacation, not even any guarantee of CORI checks or the same person cleaning next week at the Hyatt!
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p>At $15 an hour, with decades of proving their honesty and reliability, those house cleaner had decent jobs and gave honorable service. Unfortunately the current management of the Hyatt doesn’t value “decent or honorable” and thinks everyone beneath them deserves nothing and must be a sucker.
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p>And, again, the CEO is paid SIX MILLION and did not even give up a cup of tea – does Hyatt think you and I are STUPID and don’t care either about people, who who can go through our suitcases when we aren’t there? And as for the number of upper management whose pay is in the millions, and the echelon just below them who take bonuses in the hundreds of thousands as their due – nauseating. I doubt that these self-important elites ever put in a day of work as valuable as what those decent, honest, loyal hard working housekeepers did.
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p>But then the Hyatt guy probably has a valet to travel with him, and only stays in Presidential Suites and really believes he is better than the rest of us.
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p>Yuck.
And they didn’t even match the bennies they had.
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p>It’s a “soft landing” anyway
The Herald has a pretty good story and a great picture of a big union
action in Chicago at Hyatt Hdqrs
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p>And our own Chamber of Commerce, careful not to support any displaced worker, at least tries to evade disruption (gasp) to participants in their forum.
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p>And they’ll still need a union to protect these 100 workers from getting harassed and fired for not being appropriately grateful and maybe (gasp,gasp) trying to organize a union.
I would be surprised if any of the original housekeepers make it to the end of the year with Hyatt. Once the spotlight is out the 1001 ways an employer can make work life unbearable for the employee will start.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during the internal Hyatt discussions over this issue following the Governor’s statement. The sharp distinction between Hyatt’s original firing-back-at-the-Governor response and its current position suggest that there was quite an internal battle going on in Hyatt boardrooms.
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p>In any case, this situation indicates more generally the importance (and necessity) of direct government pressure on corporations if one hopes to actually change anything. It’s quite similar to several banks’ very recent softening of their highly questionable overdraft practices, which came only after the threat (from Barney Frank and others) of more severe regulations if banks refused to act.
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p>Different issues, to be sure, but both go to show that without direct government pressure, many corporations will keep pushing the envelope of what they can get away with at the expense of consumers and workers.
Penny Pritzker is one of THE Pritzkers that own Hyatt. She’s the president of Classic Residences by Hyatt, which owns and operates assisted living facilities. She was Obama’s national financial chair in the campaign, and now is on his Economic Advisory Council. http://www.penny-pritzker.com/…
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p>I wonder if anyone has dropped a dime to the White House about this….
Pritzker has been a top player on team Obama from the word go, having chaired his campaign finance committee.
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p>She is a member of the Presidents Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
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p>She sits on Hyatt’s Board of Directors.
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p>She opposes the Employee Free Choice Act.
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p>And she refused to hear out one of the fired workers this week.
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p>She deserves to be publicly shamed by Obama and removed from PERAB. End of story.
Adam Smith’s theory of capitolism, Wealth of Nations presumed morality, that the strong would care for the weak, and that a reasonable level, as opposed to an obsene level of profits would be the result of capitalism.
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p>Unfortunately, far too many CEOs and CFOs seem to suffer from narcissistic personality disorder and forget that in a real sense they are their brother’s keeper.
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p>When wealth is concentrated beyond a certain percentage and degree, there are insufficient consumers with sufficient disposable income for capitalism to work.
They commit only to keeping their brother serving them. The keep their brother like a “kept woman.” The keep them the way plantations kept THEIR workers.
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p>Presuming morality is, what, merely incredibly naive? Or worse.
Yes, people are upset about how they treat their workers, but the other issue is that Hyatt is lowering the quality of their housekeeping services. Apparently they are committed to providing a lower quality product to their customers. That sends a clear message to me that I don’t want to be staying with them.
for a photo of the governor, meeting with the families of the people with profound and severe mental retardation, with serious physical handicaps, being evicted from their homes at Fernald. I hope he puts the same amount of pressure on Bixby and Howe to reverse those “policies” due to the extreme stress and harm that will be inflicted.