Thousands of hotel workers protest at Hyatt hotels

Thousands of Unite Here members and their labor and community supporters took to the streets in 15 cities across the U.S. and Canada July 22 to protest at Hyatt hotels.

The demonstrators were expressing their outrage at the Hyatt’s layoffs, slashing of workers’ hours and takeaway demands in contract talks, at the same time the giant hotel chain has reported having over $1.3 billion in available cash and its wealthy owners, the Pritzker family, took in over $900 million from the hotel’s first public offering in November 2009.

In Chicago – Pritzker family headquarters – hundreds of workers sat down in the street in front of the Hyatt Regency’s glass tower that rises high above the Chicago River. Workers were cheered on by 1,000 supporters lining both sides of the drive in front of the hotel.

Twenty five sit-in participants were arrested after demonstrators blocked traffic for nearly an hour.

As onlookers cheered, the workers, with signs reading “Enough is Enough!” pinned to their backs, entered the street in single file and sat down in rows. “We are human beings, enough is enough!” they chanted as they sat, arms linked, filling the street from one end to the other.