Workers at Hyatt Regency rally for union

By Kristopher Hanson, Staff Writer, Press-Telegram

LONG BEACH - Hotel workers continued a long-running campaign Thursday for better wages and working conditions at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Long Beach.

The rally was part of a nationwide "day of action" targeting the Hyatt hotel chain. The union alleges that Hyatt owners have pocketed multi-million payouts this year as their employees have endured pay cuts and layoffs.

"Hotel guests are returning and investors are trumpeting the recovery of the hotel industry, but in city after city, Hyatt is taking unfair advantage of its employees," said John Wilhelm of UNITE HERE, a union representing thousands of hotel workers in the Los Angeles area.

"Hyatt should be leading the way to make hotel jobs good jobs. Instead they are forcing workers to make do with less pay, worse benefits and unsafe working conditions."

UNITE HERE members and their supporters have been engaged for several years in an effort to unionize workers at several Long Beach hotels, including the Hyatt Regency, Westin and Hilton.

In 2006, UNITE HERE filed a class-action lawsuit against the hotel on behalf of 200 workers who claimed they were routinely denied overtime, meal and break periods and minimum wages.

The group also successfully lobbied the Long Beach City Council for a labor peace agreement in 2006, only to have the measure vetoed by Mayor Bob Foster.

Hyatt issued a statement Thursday calling the demonstrations "union posturing."