Hyatt boycott threatened

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick instructed state employees to stop doing official business with Hyatt until the company rehires the housekeeping staff it fired from Boston-area hotels.

Citing challenging economic conditions, Hyatt laid-off staff housekeeping at the Hyatt Regency Boston, Hyatt Regency Cambridge and Hyatt Harborside Hotel Aug. 31, and replaced them with lower-paid workers from Georgia-based Hospitality Staffing Solutions. Although housekeeping is generally the largest part of a hotel’s payroll, the outsourcing of housekeeping is unusual.

“The manner in which these workers were discharged is so inconsistent with both the expressed values of the Hyatt organization and basic fairness that I do not believe any other remedy than full reinstatement is adequate,” Patrick wrote in a letter to Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian. “Barring that, I will direct all state employees not to use Hyatt when traveling or for other purposes for the foreseeable future.”

Hyatt offered the laid-off workers severance, counseling, retraining and health coverage.
Health care benefits, originally set to expire at the end of September, were extended until the end of the year. Hyatt says it will also help each housekeeper find a new job by creating a task force to assist workers.

“We are very disappointed by the governor’s decision to threaten a boycott of our hotels since it directly threatens the 600 associates who work in Hyatt properties and who live and work Massachusetts at a time when business and individuals are cutting back on travel during the worst economic period we have seen in decades,” says Phil Stamm, general manger of Hyatt Regency Boston.

Fired workers received an outpouring of support from a rally organized by the local hotel workers’ union and politicians calling for boycotts of the Hyatt.