Hyatt Mirrors Hilton Labor Deal In Chicago
Unite Here Local 1 reached a labor agreement with Hyatt Hotels & Resorts in Chicago this week, covering 1,900 workers at four Hyatt properties in the area: Hyatt Regency Chicago, the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place and the Park Hyatt Chicago. The agreement mirrors a three-year contract struck by Unite Here last week with Hilton Hotels Corp., which covered 2,300 employees at four Chicago hotels: Hilton Chicago, Hilton O'Hare Airport, The Drake and the Palmer House Hilton. Both agreements feature improved pay, pension, working conditions and health care provisions.
"We are very pleased to reach this agreement," said Unite Here Local 1 president Henry Tamarin of the Hyatt deal. Hyatt's global headquarters are located in Chicago.
The agreement brokered by Hilton and the union was the first one to be settled in Chicago. "We are pleased to be the first hotel operator in Chicago to reach agreement with the union on a new contract," said Hilton Hotels Corp. president and COO Matthew Hart. The Hilton deal comes on the heels of a six-year contract reached in July between Hilton and the union, covering employees at all Hilton hotels in New York City. Hilton's three-year agreement in Chicago is still subject to ratification by the union's Local 1 and Local 450 chapters.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts still is negotiating contracts in Chicago and several other Chicago-area hotels have signed agreements stating they would accept the same terms to which Starwood agrees.
Unite Here officials now are turning their attention toward California and Hawaii, where they will conduct talks with Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott International. "We remain deeply concerned about the more than 2,000 brothers and sisters who have been working without contracts in five Hyatts in San Francisco, Honolulu and Monterey, Calif.," said Local 1's Tamarin. In 2004, Hyatt locked out workers at two San Francisco hotels for close to two months and those workers have since been without a contract.