Bad bad hotel
May 14, 2010 pm31 11:49 pm
This is about Boston. Got a notice in my e-mail:
On August 31st the three Boston area Hyatt hotels fired their entire housekeeping staffs and replaced them with temp workers doing more work for almost half the pay
and then…
Will we let Hyatt off the hook?
NO WAY!
Picket at the Hyatt Cambridge (535 Memorial Dr)
Sunday May 16th from 11:30-1
For more information call Jaimie McNeil at Local 26 617-832-6650
But this’s also about San Francisco. The Boston Jobs with Justice notice (above) linked a protest against a hotel in San Francisco, calling for a boycott, for not providing health care etc to its workers. Video is well-worth watching:
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JD2718 
Is the Marriott (Copley Place) involved? AMATYC conference isthere in November.
The boycott list from the video is here: http://www.hotelworkersrising.org/HotelGuide/boycott_list.php That campaign seems to mostly effect San Francisco and Chicago.
But for Boston hotels, I’m writing to my mother to ask… I can’t find an “all in one place” website.
Actually, a lot of Boston hotels are listed on the “please patronize list” – but yours is not on either. I’ll wait for an answer.
Thanks for checking. (I couldn’t watch the video yet. My son is sleeping and my house is tiny.)
Good message.But….. very, very stupid video and tactic. If I was sitting in the lobby of this hotel or checking in while this was taking place, I would be nothing but mildly amused by this silliness. It almost trivializes the cause…. Very bad idea…..
For the tens of thousands of viewers on YouTube, the video is powerful. It cements the issue forward in our minds.
The message is clear, in lyrics that stick with you. Someone knew how to write.
Boycott boycott, workers rights are hot.
This is a bad, bad hotel
These workers need healthcare, and a fair contract
This is a bad, bad hotel.
I listened a few hours ago, and the words stick.
For the workers in the hotel, it must have been an awesome act of solidarity. And rumor of it probably makes it out to be even more dramatic. I wonder if there are housekeeping workers in Chicago who are eying, at this very moment, the front lobby, seeing if they can spy a trombone being quietly brought in… I’m teasing, but the effect on the morale of those struggling for fairer treatment must be real.
You may be correct about those seated in the lobby. But this sort of action is designed for a far greater audience.
“Trivial” may not be such a bad thing this days. When I watched the video, I got the impression that it was easy to put together, did not require a producing team, and was funny and silly. Like a lolcat. Here comes everybody.
When a 100 Hyatt workers are let go, only to be replaced by subcontracted workers whom the workers trained, they deserve to have some fun in their struggle for justice. With this “silly” production the Hyatt workers can enjoy an entertaining attack on Hyatt bosses. More importantly, seeing the lobby of a hotel being taken over on behalf of workers can be joyfully empowering.
Here’s to more Hyatt lobby takeovers and to the rehiring of these workers!