Jews and Christians for Economic Justice

Yesterday afternoon, workers at the Hyatt Regency Chicago went on a 1-day strike. They walked out of work in solidarity with thousands of their co-workers across the country whose livelihoods are threatened by the management's proposed contract. After two years of working without a contract the last major sticking point with management is the fate of the non-unionized workers. 
Last week, I convened a meeting between Hyatt Corp.'s Senior HR Officer, Rob Webb and five clergy, including an Orthodox rabbi and two Methodist ministers. At the meeting at Hyatt's corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago, one of Mr. Webb's complaints was that the labor negotiator in San Franscisco was "holding those Hyatt workers hostage" by not signing a separate deal with management and holding out for better conditions for workers in other cities. I told Mr. Webb that the worker solidarity that he sees as a problem, we, clergy, see as a virtue.
The solidarity of unionized workers with their non-unionized fellow workers is impressive and inspirational. Clearly,  there is self-interest at play here: a bigger union is a stronger union. But, the workers have resisted threats and enticements. They have risked their jobs in order to ensure the long-term viability of their work agreement with management. They refuse to abandon their co-workers, even when that stand costs them.
At the end of our meeting, I thanked Hyatt's Senior Vice President for Human Resources for his time but added that we would continue to campaign on behalf of the workers.


Yesterday afternoon I, along with local and national clergy led a rally with the striking workers and their supporters outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel just off Chicago's Magnificent Mile. At the rally I met clergy leaders from near and far including the impressive labor organizer, Rev. Carol Been of Los Angeles. The national Interfaith Worker Justice conference that is meeting in Chicago this week made the Hyatt Regency a focal point of its activism.


Local clergy were present too. Rabbi Bruce Elder from the Chicago suburbs delivered a powerful prayer on behalf of the striking workers. I was honored to lead the music alongside Kim Bobo, the head of the Interfaith Worker Justice organization.


Rob Webb came out from his office to watch the rally. Apparently, he exchanged a friendly wave with Rabbi Elder. As he told us at our meeting last week, "we have the power to give." It's time to use that power.

The Solution to Hyatt Corp's Problem

Jane Ramsey (JCUA), a translator & the three Hyatt housekeepers:
Linda Lopez (L.A.)  Drupatiie Jungra (Boston) Ofelia Martinez (Chicago)
Chicago, August 28, 2011

Last week I heard the story of a Hyatt worker who was fired from her job of 29 years and replaced by temp workers whom she had trained. On August 31, 2009, all the housekeeping staff at three Boston Hyatt hotels were fired and replaced by temps. Management had lied to her and her co-workers about why they were training these new workers. According to this worker, the general manager of the Hyatt Regency Cambridge told the housekeeping staff on the day of their dismissal that the reason they were being fired was because the hotel was short of money. The reality is that the hotel industry is, and has been doing very well, with high occupancy rates, as reported by Hyatt itself. The actual hardship is born by the workers. In our "jobless recovery" desperate people will take any job, undercutting workers who are just a little better off than they are.

Hyatt has a problem. The company is required to constantly increase its earnings. Since business is already booming, the money will have to come from cutting costs. Since the hotel cannot lower its standards of hospitality,  this means that costs must be cut. And that means labor. Our 'jobless recovery' has generated an abundance of poor, unemployed people, a bonanza in cheap labor.

You might think that dismissing veteran, loyal, hardworking staff might be a bump in this plan. But, actually, the real problem is how to exploit this change to cut out the messy business of dealing with people.

Thankfully, this problem has a solution. Hospitality Staffing Solutions provides affordable, hassle-free labor. HSS sums up its pitch with one advertizing image. "HSS offers convenience at affordable prices." - just like the vending machine in the company's advertizing:

HSS ad targeting Hyatt and other hotels and hospitality businesses

I find the company's ad offensive on several levels.
1) The size of the workers. The images are reduced to the size of a packet of M&Ms. You can pop these workers into your mouth. This is humiliating: all these workers added together are still smaller than the client.
2) The workers in each category are identical to each other - all workers are equally indistinguishable from each other. These clones are faceless,  dependable drones.
3) The clean transaction of the vending machine translates into the business world. The vending machine offers you no shopping for food, cooking, sitting down to eat and cleaning up. Just put some change into the vending machine and pop instant food into your mouth.  Similarly,  HSS promises employers protection from dealing with all the human messiness of real people.

Finally - and perhaps it's my own sensitivity having just finished working Holocaust material -  but talking about human beings in terms of "solutions" leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Now, take another look at the workers in the first picture. Do they look like they belong in a vending machine?

Hyatt Negotiations - Levelling the Playing Field

Here's my report from the Hyatt workers' negotiations. I represented the American Conference of Cantors. My report is cross-posted on the AFL-CIO blog:


At a time when collective bargaining is under threat, the workers of Hyatt hotels in Chicago invited clergy to observe their negotiations with management in February. I was honored to attend the negotiations as a local clergy community leader and was representing the American Conference of Cantors.
Being with the workers during negotiations was a remarkable experience. In the morning, before the negotiations began we had the opportunity of meeting with the 80-plus workers.  I heard moving testimonies by union workers from Chicago along with nonunion workers from Indianapolis. They laid out their work-related struggles and spoke eloquently of the deep unfairness of their employment situations. One Chicago worker told of being required to work overtime over the Christian holidays while fellow workers were sent home with no work or pay. Neither of them had a good holiday.
At its nonunion hotels, such as the Indianapolis Hyatt Regency, many Hyatt employees and subcontracted employees start at the minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, and clean as many as 30 rooms a day; few, if any, receive health insurance.  By contrast, union Hyatt employees at the Chicago Hyatt Regency start at $14.60 an hour with benefits and clean 16 room a day.  In several cities, such as Indianapolis, workers have called on Hyatt to accept a fair process to enable them to choose whether or not to join a union. Hyatt has refused.
At Chicago union Hyatts, workers have been without a contract for 18 months.  Hyatt is demanding unacceptable benefit cuts for new employees and contract language that does not adequately protect their jobs from outsourcing and overwork when others are laid off.
It was heartening to see union workers and nonunion workers agree to stand up for each other with the goal that they all may collectively bargain for fair wages, benefits and working conditions and command respect for their human dignity from their managers and employers.
After the worker meeting, the management negotiating team entered the room. Union workers gave testimony about how work conditions have deteriorated over time. I was moved to see a low-paid worker sit across the table from the team of executives and address them courteously, yet firmly, and as an equal.  One worker berated the executives for describing the workplace as a "family." He spoke passionately about his own family. I found it powerful and refreshing to see him call out the manipulation of the word “family" by corporate executives.
Do you know how, sometimes, in a moment of heightened emotion, people who you never thought capable of eloquence, speak words of great beauty and power? When officiating at a funeral, I'm often moved by the words that mourners share in their eulogies. The rich storytelling by someone who never does public speaking and gets up to speak with deep love and beautiful, simple directness.
Listening to the workers’ testimonies, before and during the negotiations, I felt a similar sense of wonder. The workers that do the manual labor in our city’s hotels got up to speak their truth. They did so courageously—sometimes with trembling fear in their voices—and with great integrity.
It will take some time before a full agreement is reached.  Hyatt hotel workers have called for a boycott of certain Hyatt hotels.  I am proud to report that the American Conference of Cantors pledges in its conference business to honor the workers' boycott and will not patronize any of the boycotted hotels until a just resolution is reached.

About the American Conference of Cantors
Founded in 1953, the American Conference of Cantors (ACC) is the pre-eminent professional organization of Cantors in North America, currently representing more than 450 cantors in North America and around the world.  As clergy committed to Judaism and Jewish music, the membership of the ACC serves the diverse needs of the Jewish people. As an affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism, the ACC supports its members in their sacred calling as emissaries for Judaism and for Jewish music, providing a unique and dynamic vision of programs and initiatives that respond to the needs of the greater Reform community.

April 6, 2011

Worker Justice in the Business Section

The campaign for worker justice at the Hyatt and other hotels in Chicago which I've been active in since the summer and have written about received a boost from the Chicago Tribune over the weekend. The Trib covered the interfaith protest of 70 religious leaders and 100 workers on November 4. We appeared with a color photo on the cover of the Trib's business section

The article provides good context and is available here. I have tried to post the scanned hardcopy so you can see the pictures (which are not available in the online edition), but, apparently, there is a general glitch in the software. Please comment here if you want to receive a scanned image by e-mail.

This prominent coverage has already triggered some good conversations for me. I look forward to a dialog with folks who know more about business than I ever will.

What is the real bottom line in dealing with people as workers?

Clergy Solidarity with Hyatt Workers

This evening 70+ of my fellow clergy, cantors, rabbis and Christian clergy gathered with Hyatt workers to protest the continuing exploitation of workers by Hyatt management. We protested outside the Hyatt Regency, on the Chicago River across from the Magnificent Mile.

U.S. Representative Danny Davis (no relation...) added his presence and words to the event. My colleagues, members of Reform Cantors of Chicago, led the clergy processional with Go Down Moses (Let My People Go).

                                                               
                                                                       With Cantor Scott Simon at the rally

There was a great atmosphere. Our Christian colleagues were good sports and incorporated a Jewish ritual into the event. As Rev. Lillian Daniel explained it: on the Jewish holyday of Purim, whenever we hear the name of the evil Haman, we make noise in protest. Similarly, at the rally, whenever a speaker said the word "injustice", everybody shook their 'clackers'.

Rabbi Peter Knobel, immediate past-president of the 1,800 member Central Conference of American Rabbis invoked the Biblical term "oshek" "exploitation" to describe Hyatt management's treatment of its workers. Hyatt Regency hosts major Jewish events in Chicago, as it is one of the only large establishments to offer kosher food. In light of this "oshek", Rabbi Knobel declared the Hyatt Regency "not kosher."

Rev. Chisum infused energy and roused the crowd to chanting with him. Sister Gwen Fary joined with my colleagues

Cantors Simon, Goldstein & Luck accompanying on guitar Cantors Mahler & Dresher & Sister Gwen Fary.

The overall theme of the event was the Passover exodus story. I spoke about Nahshone, the hero was, according to tradition was the first to brave the waters of the Sea of Reeds (the Red Sea). Jewish tradition credits Nahshone with the beginning of the miracle of the splitting of the sea. We ended the event with singing "We Shall Overcome." By that time, the challenge that faced the protesters was not Hyatt but the weather. I had to abandon the second half of my speech because I couldn't quite unfold the sheet of paper that was disintegrating in the rain...

The atmosphere was lively. It strikes me repeatedly, how enjoyable this activism is. I met up with old friends and met new people. The workers, clergy and organizers were all connected through the common commitment of solidarity with the workers in the face of shameless exploitation. I hope our public action gave the workers a boost and gave Hyatt executives reason to fear that their image will be tarnished unless they treat their workers with respect.