In San Francisco, the hotel workers of UNITE HERE! held a seven day strike against Hyatt Sept. 8-14. Following the weeklong strike, the union has continued and intensified the boycott of Hyatt hotels.

In San Francisco, 700 members of Local 2 went on strike, 400 from the Hyatt Regency and 300 from the Grand Hyatt. They are room cleaners, cooks, servers, bussers, doormen, bellmen, dishwashers and phone operators.

Nationwide, about 3,000 workers went on strike against Hyatt at four properties in Honolulu, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Hyatt Regency in Chicago is the largest Hyatt property in the world. Contracts for the hotel workers expired in August 2009 in San Francisco and Chicago, November 2009 in Los Angeles, and June 2010 in Honolulu.

Solidarity clause

A major issue in contract negotiations between Local 2 and the Hyatt is the addition of a solidarity clause in the contract. The union demands the right to act in solidarity with workers at other Hyatt hotels. That means the ability to picket, strike and boycott in support of workers organizing, getting contracts and the right to protest abuses wherever they occur at any Hyatt hotel, union or non-union. The solidarity clause would be an advance for the labor movement.

Powell DeGange, an organizer with Local 2 explained, “It is a nationwide strike. The economy is dominated by big corporations. Part of this fight is about us being able to stand up against Hyatt abuses everywhere. We are going to postpone getting our wage [increase.] The Hilton [deal agreed to by the other hotels] was a huge victory. We must adapt to the economy of multi-national hotel chains.”

Hyatt is among the most abusive major hotel chains. Workers at Hyatt have the highest rate of injuries in the industry compared to other hotel companies according to a study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, which examined 50 hotel properties from five hotel companies.

Recently, Hyatt led the opposition to California Senate Bill 432, which would require hotels to provide housekeepers with long-handled tools and fitted sheets to end “on our knees” bathroom cleaning and backbreaking bed-making practices. Mattresses at Hyatt weigh over 100 pounds. Hyatt requires workers at their non-union hotels to clean up to 30 rooms a day, about twice as many as at unionized hotels. Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf punishes workers who support the union organizing drive there.

The workers also demand the same improvements as in the contracts negotiated with other hotels in the city. The other contracts include card-check language, which means that workers at the company’s other hotels in the city gain union representation when the majority of the workers sigh cards stating that they want to be represented by the union. Card-check union recognition does away with the lengthy and cumbersome process of the union vote, which is invariably exploited by management to mount an all-out assault on the union drive.

APEC Ministerial—boycott violators forced to move events

Local 2 asked unions and organizations to adopt picket lines at the hotels to increase the number of picketers and show solidarity. ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) adopted the picket line at the Hyatt Regency, Embarcadero in San Francisco from 6pm to 8pm on the evening of Monday, Sept. 12.

On the picketline During the picketing on Monday night, Elva Zepeda, who worked at the Hyatt Regency for 16 years, spoke to Liberation. “The reason we are still here is we want a contract,” Zepeda said. “We have been waiting two years. We want to tell them all the union proposals are fair. We have a right to ask for all the proposals. We feel all the unions come to help us. We are very happy to know all the workers at Hyatt in Chicago, L.A. and Hawaii are all doing the same thing. We stay 24 hours, seven days, day and night! We are here! We are not just standing. We are screaming! In the union, we have the support of all the union workers.” Zepeda continued: “I am a housekeeper, the hardest job in the hotel. Sometimes [in the non-union hotels] the workers go back to finish after punching out, [in order to avoid punishment for not finishing all their rooms].” This reporter has worked as an installer in the San Francisco Hyatt Regency, and asked Zepeda about the difficulty of using the service elevators and narrow passages. She replied: “There are not enough elevators and they are too small. We have to wait longer.” This makes it more difficult to finish their assigned rooms in time. The Hyatt Regency claims to be the greatest place to work, but Zepeda explained: “They mostly ask the managers.” When the strike started, she saw the general manager picking up trash, looking nervous and unprofessional. She did not see many people coming in for the APEC event.

The welcoming ceremony and dinner for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Senior Officials Meeting and Related Meetings, which was scheduled for that evening at the Hyatt Regency, apparently had been moved to the Westin St. Francis, a hotel that signed a new contract with the union several months ago. A wall of APEC graphics installed before the strike began still stood in the empty lobby.

Earlier that Monday afternoon, the ministerial officials had gotten accommodations at other hotels, but the conference and meeting blocks were still scheduled at the Hyatt Regency. Regarding the APEC conference, Julia Wong, media spokesperson for Local 2 said, “It is completely unacceptable for any customers to cross the picket line at a boycotted hotel.”

The U.S. State Department and the Bay Area Council planned and organized the APEC events at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, which was on the well-publicized list of boycotted hotels. The Bay Area Council is a business group representing the largest companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco has several hotels with convention and conference facilities as good as or better than the Hyatt Regency.

APEC is a 21-member association of countries from the Asia-Pacific region. The conferences and meetings include senior officials, ambassadors and ministerial level officials along with corporate CEOs. The U.S. delegation includes the Secretaries of State, Commerce, Transportation and Energy. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads the U.S. delegation. She was scheduled to speak at the Westin St. Francis Hotel during the Women and the Economy Summit, part of the APEC conference.

“The round of APEC meetings that we will host together in San Francisco in September will feature an unprecedented level of direct private sector participation in APEC policy discussions,” said APEC U.S. Senior Official Ambassador Kurt Tong.

The Hyatt Regency was to be the main venue for this major capitalist diplomatic gathering. On Sept. 6, convention industry workers started to set up the pre-summit conferences and meetings at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero and the Westin St. Francis hotel on Union Square.

Since the start of the strike Sept. 8, all the workers honored the picket line and refused to work on the conference. Workers in the San Francisco convention industry are represented by the Teamsters Local 2785 and 856, Sign Display Union Local 510, Electrical Workers Local 6 and Stagehands, IATSE Local 16, in addition to UNITE HERE! Local 2. The San Francisco Labor Council supported the strike.

On Sept. 9, Liberation News learned that Freeman Decorating Company account executives crossed the picket line to do the electrical work at the Hyatt Regency.

The Transportation and Energy Ministerial Conference and meetings were scheduled to be at the Hyatt Regency Sept. 12 – 14. Faced with the workers solidarity, the State Department, White House and biggest corporations who organized the APEC USA 2011 events changed their plans and had to find another location for the events for that week.

Solidarity rally on final day of strike

On Sept. 14, the last day of the strike, UNITE HERE! Local 2, the San Francisco Labor Council, affiliated unions and community organizations rallied and marched in solidarity with the striking workers. About 500 people assembled in Union Square and marched past the Grand Hyatt, concluding with a rally in Justin Herman Plaza adjacent to the Hyatt Regency. At the hotels, the marchers joined the picketers, extending the picket lines into the streets.

A large contingent of workers in the California School Employees Association marched in union shirts, with their banner leading the march. CSEA represents public school support staff. Others participating included American Federation of Teachers 2121, Union Iron workers 377, Chinese Progressive Association, Service Employees International Union, Pacific Media Workers Guild, the Newspaper Guild of Communication Workers Union 39521, and Academic Student Employees UAW 2865.

At Union Square, Local 2 member Antonia Cortez, a room cleaner at Hyatt Regency for 35 years, addressed the assembled workers and activists: “We have been strong on strike for seven days! The union is us and this fight is a fight for our future. We are united for the principle of solidarity because solidarity is our future. We knew that seven days would not be enough to make Hyatt cave, but we go back stronger!”

Michael Theriault, Secretary Treasurer of the San Francisco Building Trades Council, and a union iron worker said to the hotel workers: “You have applied heat to the Hyatt for a week and they are feeling it. The building trades stand with you!”

Mike Casey, President of Local 2 and the San Francisco Labor Council, said that this was an unprecedented strike for the hotel workers. “Never before have we struck one company in four cities for seven days!”

At the Justin Herman Plaza rally outside the Hyatt Regency, Casey thanked all the other union workers who honored the picket lines by refusing to work at the Hyatt during the strike, including stagehands in IATSE Local 16, installers in Sign Display Union Local 510, freight truck drivers in Teamsters Local 655, and front desk workers and reservation clerks in Teamsters Local 856. Other workers in the convention industry who honored the picket lines include electrical workers in IBEW Local 6 and freight handlers in Teamsters Local 2785.

After the rally, at the picket line outside the Hyatt Regency, Tina Chen, Vice President of Local 2, spoke to Liberation. Referring to the contract struggle, she said: “I believe solidarity is the most important part to the worker. We are not going to give up our right. We will do whatever we can to win the solidarity language!” While many unions have fought defensive battles to keep what they have, UNITE HERE! took inspirational action by going on the offensive, not for much-deserved higher wages but for a solidarity clause in their contract.