Global Boycott of Hyatt Hotels

Workers at Hyatt Hotels in the U.S. and around the world are calling on consumers to boycott Hyatt hotels, that is, to avoid doing any business with Hyatt Hotels. Hotel workers, especially housekeepers who clean the rooms, are pushed to work very hard, suffer from work-related injuries, are paid meager wages, and get little respect from their employer. They hope the boycott will pressure management to treat them with greater justice. Jesus supported the marginalized and the UCC seeks to do so as well by standing with oppressed workers and honoring their boycotts. General Synod supported farm workers when we endorsed the boycotts of Taco Bell and Mt. Olive Pickles. The UCC Executive Council changed the convention center and hotels for the 26th General Synod in 2007 to avoid giving business to facilities that were involved in disputes with their workers. People of faith are called to stand with and support the struggles of marginalized workers. While General Synod has not examined this particular boycott, individuals and families can choose to honor it. Boycott Hyatt Hotels. More info about the boycott.

Sign the pledge from Interfaith Worker Justice to support the boycott.

Hotel Workers need our Support 

If you have recently stayed in a major hotel, you will know that the rooms have become extraordinarily luxurious. A down comforter, five or six down pillows, and an extra-soft mattress cover have become standard features. The rooms invite sweet dreams, but they are a nightmare for the housekeepers who clean them each day. The "amenities arms race" has dramatically increased their workload and their injury rate.

Since 2002 when the battle of the beds began, the incidence of arm, shoulder, and lower-back injuries has skyrocketed. But most housekeepers do not receive health insurance from their employer, and according to the New York Times, their annual pay averages only slightly more than $17,000. So what’s a hard working housekeeper to do? Many of them are finding the best way to gain a greater voice on the job, higher pay, and even health insurance is to join a union.

The UCC and hotel workers in Hartford, Conn.

The UCC has played a small but very important role in the nationwide struggle by hotel workers to form unions. Read about the workers and how a their struggle in Hartford, Conn., led the UCC Executive Council to change the locationof General Synod 26.

Hotel Workers Rising   Learn more about the Hotel Workers Rising campaign