A hard ending for housekeepers Uncommon outsourcing eliminates 100 Hyatt jobs

[Craftsman]

On Aug. 31, staffers learned the full story: None of them would be making the beds and cleaning the showers any longer. All of them were losing their jobs. The trainees, it turns out, were employees of a Georgia company, Hospitality Staffing Solutions, who were replacing them that day.

The move to outsource the jobs of about 100 housekeeping employees at the Hyatt Regency Boston, Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and Hyatt Harborside at Logan International Airport is unusual in the hospitality industry, which counts on the housekeeping staff to help make sure hotel guests are comfortable.

“It’s unbelievable,’’ said Lucine Williams, 41, who has worked at the Hyatt Regency Boston for nearly 22 years and was making $15.32 an hour plus health, dental, and 401(k) benefits when she lost her job. “I don’t know how they can treat people like that.’’

After hearing the news at meetings last month, employees cried and screamed, said Drupattie Jungra, 55, who had worked at the Cambridge Hyatt for more than 21 years and made $15.69 an hour, plus benefits.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/09/17/housekeepers_lose_hyatt_jobs_to_outsourcing/

[Craftsman]

1. I once was asked to train people who took my job

I quit that week.

[madokie]

9. I was repeatedly reassured that the kid I was training wasn't to take my job

up and until I had him where he was comfortable with doing the job by himself then it was see you later to me.

[Craftsman]

10. They told me flat out they were sending my job to Korea, and I was to train them

I bailed.

[NJCher]

2. story after story like this

Yet no one seems to connect it to the ruthlessness of capitalism. Well, no one except for the people here at DU.

At the end of the story it talks about how one of the workers had to cancel her airline ticket to her home country to see her father, whom she hasn't seen since 2005. The story says that she doesn't know when she'll see him again.

If this isn't cruel, I don't know what is.

Oh--yeah, losing her healthcare. That's pretty cruel.


Cher

[Craftsman]

3. I figure it just got a lot easier to unionize Boston Hotels

[Klukie]

4. A link to the company that replaced them

http://www.hssstaffing.com/hssthecompany.html

[endless october]

5. i'll avoid that hotel permanently.

you know, there are a lot of us unemployed right now.

i wonder how effective we could be at unionizing some of the really shitty places to work like Walmart.

[Craftsman]

6. I have inlaws in Mass. the $8 bucks they are paying these people

is the Mass minimum wage.

[bertman]

7. Phone calls, emails, letters directed to Hyatt Regency. That will at least give them a clue.

[Craftsman]

8. Done

[blm]

12. Exactly what needs to be done....call, call, call.

.

[wilt the stilt]

11. As norma Rae said "Union ,Union, Union"

and people wonder why unions exist? race to the bottom.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Back in another life we had a hotel chain as a client...

and they paid housekeepers around $8 a room. No benefits. And it was in New Jersey, not some backwater.

I keep hearing about the battles in the remaining union hotels and restaurants, and can't help wondering how they keep their heads above water with the non-union competition.

Anyway, it's not just hotels and hospitality. In the mid 90's a friend of mine lost his job as a union electrician when the Meadowlands fired all the elctricians and "allowed" them to apply for jobs with the new non-union contractor. They did the same with the cleaning crew. Everyone was to make about half, with reduced or no benefits.

Contract cleaning outfits had been in a race to the bottom for years, and when they beat down a bid to get the business the only way they could save a buck was on payroll. I remember the kerfuffle when Lisbon Cleaning, which had just renewed a contract with the Port Authority to clean Newark Airport was found to have hired almost entirely undocumented South Americans. These undocumented workers had complete access to the terminals and cargo areas with no backgound checks. For years they had been sweeping around the ankles of the immigration inspectors in Terminal B, and nobody bothered to ask who they were.

There are few angels in these stories, btw-- the cleaners at the Meadowlands got a double dose of bad when they found out their union chief stole their pension money.