Hyatt Says Mass. Boycott About Job Cuts Will Cost Jobs

Hyatt Hotels, responding to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's call for a statewide boycott of the hotel company until it rehires almost 100 full-time housekeeping employees Hyatt laid off at the end of August, yesterday said the move would endanger far more jobs than the 100 that the company outsourced.

Phil Stamm, general manager of Hyatt Regency Boston, argued that the potential boycott puts an additional 600 Hyatt positions in the state at risk. "We do not understand why the governor is putting more Massachusetts jobs at risk instead of working with us to find jobs for employees affected by the realities of these unprecedented economic challenges," he said in a statement.

The hotel company said its action to replace its housekeeping staff with outsourced employees from a Georgia cleaning company was "in response to the unprecedented economic challenges those hotels are facing in the current business environment" and that Hyatt has "treated their housekeepers with fairness and dignity" in providing unemployment assistance to the laid-off employees, including an invitation to apply for other positions at Hyatt, a listing of job openings at other local hotels, access to an employee assistance helpline and severance benefits.

Adding fuel to the fire was that some of the former employees had worked to onboard the new staffers, essentially training their own replacements.

After sending a letter to Hyatt Hotels Corp. CEO Mark Hoplamazian on Tuesday, Patrick Wednesday publicly called for state employees to cease doing business with Hyatt until the fired workers were rehired, according to multiple reports.

"You must understand that what has been imposed on these workers—most of whom have worked hard, played by the rules, and invested their time and energy in your company's success—is both upsetting in its own right, and also the worst nightmare of every worker in today's weak economy," Patrick wrote in the letter to Hoplamazian. "Again, I ask Hyatt to reconsider the decision to replace these workers. Barring that, I will direct all state employees not to use Hyatt when traveling or for other purposes for the foreseeable future. This is not how I like to operate. But the treatment of these workers appears to be so substandard that it leaves me no choice."

An unofficial online petition was launched at hyattboycott.com in support of the boycott, which totaled 170 signatures as of this morning. The site, currently still under construction, features a blog and statements from politicians on the subject.