Nearly two months after the International Mr. Leather ( IML ) conference was embroiled in a controversy for crossing a workers' boycott at one Hyatt hotel, employees drew heat of their own from another hotel in the Chicago-based chain—quite literally.
On July 21, strikers at the Park Hyatt downtown arrived to find that the hotel had cranked up its 10 winter heat lamps over the entrance where the employees planned to picket. The lamps, which are intended to warm hotel patrons during freezing months, burned down on the more than 60 strikers who demanded that the company stop subcontracting out jobs and provide safer work conditions for housekeepers.
The workers' boycott, organized by the UNITE HERE Local 1 union, has drawn national attention from LGBT leaders and media since IML decided not to relocate its May competition out of the Hyatt Regency Chicago when workers announced a boycott.
Cleve Jones, the famous gay-rights activist who created the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, has been working with UNITE HERE on hospitality and LGBT issues, including an LGBT-focused campaign called "Sleep with the Right People."
"There are a lot of LGBT workers who work in the hotel industry, particularly in restaurants," said Annemarie Strassel, a spokesperson for Local 1.
"From my perspective, fairness and equality go hand in hand," said Gabriel Carrasquillo, a gay restaurant server that works at the Park Hyatt.
Carrasquillo said that the possibility that workers' jobs could be subcontracted out from under them has created distrust of the hotel chain. Carrasquillo is HIV-positive, and he said his healthcare depends on the medical insurance he gets through work.
"I took the job with Hyatt because of the medical benefits," he said. "To me, that's a necessity."
Hyatt workers in eight other U.S. cities also picketed their hotels July 21 for a day-long strike.
According to Local 1, the union has settled all of its other Chicago hotel contracts, but has failed to reach an agreement with Hyatt for 20 months.
Local 1 represents 170 servers, housekeepers, dishwashers and bellpersons at the Park Hyatt location and approximately 1,800 Hyatt workers in Chicago.
The Park Hyatt Chicago claimed that that UNITE HERE is using its workers to build support for non-union Hyatt workers when it should be focusing on its current membership.
"In cities from Chicago to Waikiki and here at Park Hyatt Chicago, we have offered union leaders contract proposals that match wage and benefits packages identical to what UniteHere has accepted from other hotel companies," Park Hyatt administrators said in a news statement. "Yet, union leaders have rejected every one of these proposals."
Workers say the issue is not pay or medical benefits.
"Everyone has been here for a really long time because of the benefits," said Susan Tynan, who has worked in the Park Hyatt restaurant for four years.
The issue, said Tynan, remains outsourcing of jobs and hazardous work conditions for housekeepers.
Workers outside the hotel marched in blistering heat, taking shifts and water breaks to avoid heat stroke. The hotel did turn off its 10 heat lamps before city temperatures peaked. Doormen worked to keep the sounds of clanging pots and pans as well as the chanting out of the hotel by quickly sealing the doors as guests came and went.
Tynan said she was proud of her co-workers for taking the risk and walking off the job.
"It is [ scary ] , said Tynan. "I'm sort of getting used to it. I try not to think about it, honestly."
