Gov. Deval Patrick Joins Condemnation of Hyatt Firings | Black Agenda Report

Gov. Deval Patrick Joins Condemnation of Hyatt Firings

Glen Ford, BAR executive editor

30 Sep 2009

🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Hyatt Hotels pounced on their Boston housekeepers like a great predator, firing the staff without notice and attempting to replace them at half the wages. A governor and a union stepped up in solidarity with the workers, who had been subjected to cruel, but not unusual, treatment in this late stage of capitalism.

Gov. Deval Patrick Joins Condemnation of Hyatt Firings

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Nearly one hundred people and their families were abused and traumatized by a huge corporation.”

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick deserves a salute for his solidarity with Hyatt Hotel workers who were cruelly disrespected and fired last week. Ninety-eight non-union housekeeping workers were summarily dismissed from three Boston-area Hyatt hotels, replaced by contract employees earning half their salaries. Hyatt outsourced their $14 to $16 an hour jobs to a Georgia company that pays only $8. Governor Patrick appealed directly to Hyatt's CEO for the workers' reinstatement and, when that failed, urged state employees to boycott the hotel chain, based in that wannabe Olympic city, Chicago. Massachusetts Gov. Patrick was right when he said the firings were “the worst nightmare of every worker in today's weak economy.”

There is a logic to the way that corporate behavior toward employees becomes more inhumane at precisely the same rate that the job market deteriorates. To put it simply, corporations are as cruel as they think they can get away with.When there are six unemployed persons for every job opening, the employer, like a king, feels empowered to behave like the worst kind of tyrant.

The Hyatt firings were doubly cruel in their execution. The workers, some of whom had been on the job for over 20 years, were ordered to train the new, outsourced employees, supposedly so they could fill in during vacations or when regular employees got sick. The housekeepers were not informed they were really training their replacements. Several days before the ax fell, the workers say management told them to empty their lockers so they could be cleaned. Actual notice of termination didn't come until the last day of work.

“Corporations are as cruel as they think they can get away with.”

Although the Hyatt's Boston hotel employees are not unionized, some asked the hotel workers' union Unite Here for help. The union staged a demonstration at which 150 people were arrested, and sent one of the fired workers to Chicago to meet with Penny Pritzger, an heiress to the hotel-owning family who was also national finance chairman for the Obama presidential campaign. Hyatt's response to the employees' and Gov. Patrick's appeals was to offer the workers a brief extension of their current salaries and health benefits, and temporary jobs with another outsourcing agency that Hyatt contracts with in Chicago. The offer was rejected. Said one of the workers: “We will not accept temp positions that are designed to put others out of work.”

Hyatt's shameful, devious and heartless treatment of its Boston hotel housekeepers also illustrates the deceptive nature of unemployment statistics. The employees that Hyatt was forcing into unemployment were to be replaced by previously unemployed workers at half the pay. A company payroll was, presumably, cut in half, but no jobs were created or destroyed and the overall employment numbers remained unchanged. But nearly one hundred people and their families were abused and traumatized by a huge corporation, and most will not likely recover in this economy. And their replacements will clean up behind other people at poverty wages with no job security whatsoever. That is par for the course, in late-stage capitalist America.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.

More Stories

Nato Koury
Guantánamo Bay’s forgotten history of detaining Haitian migrants
19 Feb 2025
The threats by the Trump administration to detain migrants in Guantanamo Bay will not be the first time the United States has used the facility for migrant detention. Not too long ago,…
Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
Malcolm X, Black Nationalism and the Cold War
19 Feb 2025
United States intelligence agencies kept close watch over developments in the African American struggle for freedom, justice, equality and self-determination after the conclusion of the Second…
Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team
U.S.-led Imperialism Is Directly Responsible for Turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo
19 Feb 2025
Western nations are fueling the atrocities Rwanda is inflicting on the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite the unrelenting aggression, the Congolese people are resisting. International solidarity…
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
Dr. Wilmer Leon: When they tell you about their own, believe them
19 Feb 2025
"When people show you who they are, believe them" remains true when we examine the sorry state of the U.S. political arena. Both major political parties have made clear their priorities - and those…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio February 14, 2025
14 Feb 2025
In this week’s segment, we discuss the commutation of Leonard Peltier’s sentence from life in prison to house arrest. But first, we hear an analysis of U.S. relations with South Africa and discuss…