Hundreds of hotel workers demonstrated for safer working conditions,
better pay and increased job security outside of a Hyatt Hotel in Los
Angeles July 21. The one-day strike was a part of a coordinated
campaign organized by the union UNITE HERE in which workers at nine
other Hyatt hotels throughout the U.S. participated in the action.
Hyatt housekeepers oppose the practice of firing full-time workers
and replacing them with temp agency employees who get paid poverty
rates. Hiring subcontractors enables Hyatt to evade legal
responsibility for unsafe working environments. According to a recent
study published by American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Hyatt
housekeepers have a higher injury rate then housekeepers at any other
hotel company. Non-union Hyatt employees also want to be able to
organize without intimidation from management.
Outside of the LA hotel that day, the mood among the employees was
one of anger yet optimism. The action started with picketing in which
workers chanted “Hyatt escucha estamos en la lucha” and “Si se
puede.” The chants represent the heavily Latino make-up of hotel
workers, yet people of all nationalities were present at the rally.
Along with organizers from UNITE HERE, leaders from several community
organizations attended in solidarity with Hyatt workers. Members of
the Party of Socialism and Liberation also attended the one-day
action.
Joel Montano, from the tenants’ rights organization Coalition of
Economic Survival, explained why he was at the rally: “The tenants’
and workers’ struggle are the same struggle. All the struggles
connect—fighting for jobs and against foreclosures—the whole
economic system must be addressed.”
After an hour of picketing, there was street theater led by
housekeepers who performed demonstrations of the work they do, which
often includes cleaning up to 30 rooms a day. The all-too-common
results of this tedious work are back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome
and sexual harassment from hotel guests behind closed doors.
Then several workers took part in civil disobedience and sat down on
the street before being taken away in handcuffs by police. Workers
formed a picket line once again and engaged in boisterous chanting to
close out the day.
This one-day strike by Hyatt workers and other actions like it will
only become more frequent and militant as the economic crisis deepens
and the class war becomes more pronounced.
