Union employees protest hotel working conditions

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Staffers at the Andaz Hyatt hotel in West Hollywood are agitating for better working conditions this week, joining more than 5,000 hotel workers from national hotel and restaurant employee union UniteHere.

They began a one-week strike simultaneously in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Honolulu on Thursday.

The hotel and union are in the midst of negotiating a new contract that addresses these terms, in addition to wages and benefits. Hyatt employees want healthier conditions: to spend more time cleaning fewer rooms.

Their last contract expired in November 2009.

"We do have contract negotiations with Hyatt, but this strike is more than about a contract," Communications Coordinator for Los Angeles and Orange County's branch of UniteHere Leigh Shelton said. "It's about the way that Hyatt treats workers across the country."

UniteHere said that Hyatt can require its employees to clean 30 rooms each day, which is nearly twice the industry standard. And a study by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine last year showed that Hyatt hospitality workers have a significantly higher injury rate than employees at other hotel chains, where workers clean fewer rooms each day.

In a 30-room day, a worker could spend as little as 15 minutes on each - bathroom, bed and floors, UniteHere said.

Hyatt countered the union's accusation in a press release Thursday, the day the strike started. "Many of our associates have told us today that they are supporting our efforts to reach a settlement... our general managers have heard many positive reactions" from employees, said Farley Kern, vice president of Corporate Communications at Hyatt.

The release also argued that the company offers the same wage and benefits package as competitors like Hilton and Starwood, with whom UniteHere already has contracts in place.

At tonight's rally, workers hope to show Hyatt that they have a broad base of support from Los Angeles labor leaders.

"We have servers, cooks, housekeepers, dishwashers, marching on the picket line 24 hours a day," Shelton said. "And it's not just the hotel workers who are fighting. All of LA labor is fighting. We know how to mobilize and we know how to put bodies in the streets, and we'll continue to do that if necessary."

After seven days on Sunset Boulevard, though, the picket line will file back into work this Thursday at 7:00 a.m.

Leigh Shelton was interviewed by Rosalie Murphy. The Andaz Hyatt in Los Angeles provided the Sept. 8 press release.