Angry Workers Confront Hyatt At First Shareholders Meeting

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/13671

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on June 9, 2010 - 3:57pm
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionSend to friendSend to friend

Hyatt shareholders were greeted at their first meeting by unhappy workers. Jesse Russell reports:

In November of 2009 Hyatt Hotels went public and yesterday was the company’s very first shareholders meeting. Greeting the shareholders outside of the Chicago-based company’s meeting was a number of hotel workers and members of Chicago’s religious community. The Chicago workers have been without a contract since August of 2009 and have seen very little movement tin contract negotiations. In fact, no negotiations have been held in 2010. The workers are represented by UNITE-Here and the union says the chain is trying to lock-in recession era wages even as the hotel industry starts to recover. Hyatt saw a $5 million profit in the first quarter of the year. Chicago isn’t the only city seeing Hyatt workers take action. Earlier this week workers in San Francisco went on a three-day strike while yesterday joint action was held in solidarity with Chicago in Honolulu and Los Angeles. More than 100 workers protested outside of the shareholders meeting while reporters were barred from going inside.