March 8, International Women’s Day, this year saw militant and creative actions at a number of Hyatt hotels in the United States. Hotel workers and union and community allies picketed and rallied in support of respect for women workers and their bodies, a “solidarity clause” in contracts under negotiation that would allow workers to protest if any Hyatt in the U.S. or Canada mistreats its workers, and a fair process for choosing representation where union recognition is yet to be won.
International Women’s Day, originally called International Working Women’s Day, has a long history in labor activism.
The holiday originated in 1909 as a tribute organized by U.S. socialists to women garment workers in New York who had protested unfair conditions. The next year, an International Women’s Conference preceding a general meeting of the Socialist International in Copenhagen, Denmark, proposed an annual holiday. The first one occurred in 1911, with more than a million participating in many countries.
In 1917, demonstrations marking International Women’s Day in Saint Petersburg on the last Sunday in February (which fell on March 8 on the Gregorian calendar) initiated the February Revolution in Russia.
It is appropriate that the Hyatt actions marked this historic day, since conditions for the predominantly female work force continue to be unfair, with workplace injuries and disrespectful treatment all too common. Following a march that started at the San Antonio Hyatt on March 3, actions were held March 8 at Hyatt hotels in Santa Clara, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Indianapolis.
Santa Clara action
More than 130 participants (including this writer) from 28 organizations, including faith groups, UNITE HERE Local 19 and the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), joined the morning rally and picket at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara. Later in the day, Santa Clara workers and community members joined our sisters and brothers at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco.
Martha and Lorena Reyes, pro-union housekeepers fired by Santa Clara Hyatt after removing photos of their faces superimposed on humiliating bikini-clad cartoon drawings from an “Employee Appreciation Week” display, had several radio and newspaper interviews before and during the actions.
The Reyes sisters, who had worked at the Hyatt for a combined 30 years, spoke at the opening rally expressing appreciation for the large amount of support they have received since their firing last October. As they spoke, they held placards depicting “Rosie the riveter” with the slogan “A Women’s Place is in Her Union.”
Shannon Gleeson, assistant professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz, opened the rally announcing that more than 500 academics and students in the field of women’s and gender studies had signed an online petition pledging support for a boycott of Hyatt until the following demands are met:
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Reinstate Marta and Lorena immediately, with back pay,
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Issue an apology to Marta and Lorena, as well as all the women who were subjected to and/or had to witness the objectification of women’s bodies, and
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Respond to Hyatt workers’ demands across North America that the corporation correct the unsafe, hazardous, and demeaning conditions facing them at work.
Two long clotheslines holding T-shirts with handwritten messages relating to the unsafe and demeaning conditions faced by Hyatt workers was a powerful and creative feature of the morning action. “The Clothesline Project,” a program started on Cape Cod in Massachusetts in 1990 to address violence against women, inspired the display.
Following the opening rally, a spirited picket started up in the front of the hotel. At the same time, a delegation of about a dozen community leaders, led by Rabbi Melanie Aron, left to meet with the new, female general manager of the Santa Clara Hyatt, Dania Duke. The Hyatt, interestingly, had only recently assigned Duke to replace the previous, male manager, Peter Rice.
Duke refused to meet with us inside the hotel where we could have a serious discussion, insisting instead that we meet outside the front entrance, a few feet away from our rather loud picket. Shortly after the meeting started, a group of Hyatt workers came out and added to the decibel level with a noisy counter-demonstration. The counter-demonstrators held up signs and wore T-shirts with (mostly printed) anti-union slogans.
Duke told us with a straight face that these workers were on their morning break and had organized the demonstration entirely on their own. Such breaks are 10 minutes at the Hyatt, but this demonstration lasted close to half an hour, which meant that these workers overstayed their break, the very pretext used by the hotel in firing Martha and Lorena.
Duke also insisted that the safety and well-being of the workers were the highest priority at the Hyatt—this in face of the fact revealed in a study by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine that Hyatt ranked last based on workplace injuries suffered by its housekeeping staff among the 50 hotels studied.
With the cacophony of loud chanting making it nearly impossible to carry on any sort of dialogue, the delegation did its best to convey to the new manager our concerns regarding Marta and Lorena’s firing and working conditions at the Hyatt and made clear that we would keep coming back until these matters were resolved.
The Reyes sisters have filed complaints against the hotel with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and an investigation is ongoing. They are asking for their jobs back with back pay, saying they were wrongly terminated.
Information on how you can support Martha and Lorena Reyes and the boycott of the Hyatt can be found at the website HyattHurts.org.
