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For Immediate Release: February
12, 2013
Contact: Carly Karmel, 312-933-4045,
ckarmel@unitehere1.org
or
Corey Caldwell, 202-550-5520,
ccaldwell@afanet.org
Flight Attendants to Hyatt: We back global boycott
Hotel workers’ partnership with AFA could impact millions of
dollars in the travel industry
[Chicago, IL] – On Tuesday, over 100 leaders from the
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) rallied in
front of Hyatt headquarters in Chicago and delivered a letter to
corporate leaders at Hyatt supporting the Hyatt boycott and
demanding safer working conditions for hotel employees. Flight
Attendants found an easy partnership with hotel workers in their
fight for worker justice as both sectors are part of the travel
industry.
This past September, the AFA Executive Board passed the Hyatt
Boycott Resolution in support of Hyatt workers. The resolution
spoke to the issue of union flight crews being placed in Hyatt
hotels by their employers while working layovers across the
country and around the world. Read the AFA Hyatt Boycott
Resolution here. The Board committed to ensuring they will do
everything they can to ensure their airlines do not secure
agreements with Hyatt properties on the boycott list.
“Hyatt workers do not suffer in silence. We applaud their
bravery in speaking out and proudly stand with them,” said AFA
International President Veda Shook. “We spend more time at
hotels than the average person, and will do everything in our
power to ensure Hyatt and other hotel workers have safe working
conditions and are treated with respect,” said Shook.
Airlines spend approximately $100 million on hotel rooms for
Flight Attendants on work assignments. In addition, Flight
Attendants frequently travel with their families — accounting
for hundreds of thousands more revenue on leisure travel and
hotel accommodations. AFA will actively communicate Hyatt’s
abuse of its workers to their Flight Attendant members, and urge
them to check the boycott list prior to booking with Hyatt
hotels.
Hyatt has singled itself out as the worst employer in the hotel
industry by abusing its housekeepers, replacing longtime
employees with minimum wage temporary workers, and imposing
health-threatening workloads on those who remain. In a study
published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine
examining a total of 50 hotel properties from five different
hotel companies, Hyatt housekeepers had the highest injury rate
of all housekeepers studied when compared by hotel company.
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UNITE HERE represents more than 250,000 workers throughout the
U.S. and Canada who work in the hospitality, gaming, food
service, manufacturing, textile, laundry, and airport
industries.
The Association of Flight Attendants is the world’s largest
Flight Attendant union. Focused 100 percent on Flight Attendant
issues, AFA has been the leader in advancing the Flight
Attendant profession for 67 years. Serving as the voice for
Flight Attendants in the workplace, in the aviation industry, in
the media and on Capitol Hill, AFA has transformed the Flight
Attendant profession by raising wages, benefits and working
conditions. Nearly 60,000 Flight Attendants come together to
form AFA, part of the 700,000-member strong Communications
Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at
www.afacwa.org .
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