Clinicians Boycott Hyatt
The medical community has a tool to help ensure the health of hotel workers that is unparalleled by almost any other profession, and it's not medicine.
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It's consumer power.
Medical meetings count for 23% of all conferences in the U.S., making them the single largest sector of the convention and hospitality industry. In 2010, the AMA, its state affiliates, and over 100 national specialty societies spent over $220 million on meetings.
Given the size and spending power of the medical profession, members of the medical community have the tools and responsibility to be of aid in a whole new way: to only patronize hotels that respect the physical and overall health of their employees.
Download: "Why Clinicians are Boycotting Hyatt"
- * Landmark OSHA statement tells Hyatt that its housekeepers are at risk
- * Summary: (2010) Occupational injury disparities in the US hotel industry
- * Read Hyatt workers' stories
- * Why thousands are joining on to boycott Hyatt
- * UIC and Rush Medical Students Agree: Hyatt Hurts!
- * Medical Professionals Take Action to Support Hyatt Housekeepers
A Special Message from Clinicians who Support the Hyatt Boycott
We are writing to ask you, our colleagues, to join us in support of Hyatt Hotel workers by pledging to boycott Hyatt.
Medical exhibitions comprise 23% of all shows in the US, some 98,000 meetings per year. In 2010, meetings of healthcare professionals generated more than $2.2 billion in income.
Yet the hotel workers who serve the nearly 20 million guests involved in these activities have the highest injury rate of all service workers [USBLS, 2005].
In conversations with Hyatt Hotel housekeepers in Chicago and San Francisco, physicians have heard of chronic musculoskeletal pain due to such repetitive stresses as lifting heavy mattresses on platform beds that are low to the floor. Workers at non-union hotels that subcontract from temp agencies have filed suit alleging wage theft: being required to work off the clock, and not being paid even for all of the hours that they are signed in. Many workers clean bathroom floors on their hands and knees; and when legislation outlawing this practice was introduced in the California legislature, Hyatt Hotels fought it.
Healthcare professionals have been visible in their support of hotel workers, joining picket lines and demonstrations, and meeting with workers in employee cafeterias. We can also be effective in another way: we can use our purchasing power to help lead the hospitality industry away from the abuse of workers, and in the direction of promoting their safety and well-being.
We ask you to boycott Hyatt: to pledge not to eat, sleep, or meet in any Hyatt Hotel until workers gain job security, safer working conditions, and access to health care.
Thank you!
| Quentin Young, MD, MACP Physicians for a National Health Program John M. Raba, MD Principal, Health Management Associates Former CMO Cook County Bureau of Health Services Andrew D. Coates, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, Albany Medical College Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO Physicians for a National Health Program American College of Physicians Susan Buchanan, MD, MPH Occupational Medicine physician Chicago, IL Stefanie Smith AMSA National Grassroots Chair, 2012-2013 Henry L. Abrons, MD, MPH Physicians for a National Health Program Andrea Knittel MD/PhD Candidate 2013 |
David Blatt, MD Internal Medicine Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame Anne Scheetz, MD, FACP Physicians for a National Health Program Lindsay Martin-Engel University of Illinois Chicago MD/MPH Candidate AMSA Grassroots Organizing Chair 2011-2012 Sarah Lovinger, MD Internal Medicine Chicago Physicians for Social Responsibility Sonia Lazreg AMSA/CIR Health Justice Fellow 2010-2012 MD/MPH Candidate Mount Sinai School of Medicine David Ansell, MD Professor of Internal Medicine Rush Medical College Steven K. Rothschild, MD Preventive Medicine, Rush University |
Duane Dowell, MD Physicians for a National Health Program Flávio Casoy, MD Resident Physician, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco Arthur Chen, MD Senior Fellow in Family Medicine, Asian Health Services Claudia Fegan, MD, CHCQM, FACP Past President, Physicians for a National Health Program Reshma Ramachandran PharmFree Fellow 2012-2013 Medical Student at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University American Medical Students Association Paul Sidlowski Rush University Medical Center MD Candidate 2015 |
Affiliations listed for identification only.
Clinicians Pledge to Boycott Hyatt
Hyatt Hotel housekeepers suffer abuse. Their injury rates are high and their workloads are dangerous. Hyatt has an egregious record of OSHA safety violations, and their subcontractors exploit some of the most vulnerable members of the population. That is why healthcare providers are boycotting Hyatt, and in so doing, we uphold the values of our profession as healers.
In boycotting Hyatt, I know that members of my profession can make a difference because medical meetings and conferences are the single largest sector in the convention and hospitality industry.
I WILL NOT EAT, SLEEP OR MEET AT HYATT HOTELS. I will not book any new events at Hyatt Hotels until workers win safe and sustainable working conditions.
I publicly endorse the Hyatt boycott and I call on my colleagues and the many associations of the medical community to join me in supporting these women in their struggle.
In boycotting Hyatt, I know that members of my profession can make a difference because medical meetings and conferences are the single largest sector in the convention and hospitality industry.
I WILL NOT EAT, SLEEP OR MEET AT HYATT HOTELS. I will not book any new events at Hyatt Hotels until workers win safe and sustainable working conditions.
I publicly endorse the Hyatt boycott and I call on my colleagues and the many associations of the medical community to join me in supporting these women in their struggle.
Learn More
Be sure to check out our Union Hotel Guide to find a union hotel where UNITE HERE members are employed. You'll be supporting good union jobs, and will find a friendly face to greet you on your journey. Click here to find out what hotels to avoid on our boycott list.
To avoid the prospect of labor conflict during your stay at a hotel, insist on protective contractual language when you make a reservation or organize an event. For Group Customer Model Protective Language, click here. Or click here for information and resources for meeting planners.
* The call to "Boycott Hyatt" does not include the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa and the Grand Hyatt Kauai, which have current collective bargaining agreements with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union; The Hyatt Regency Montreal, which has a contract with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN); the Hyatt Regeny Milwaukee and the Hyatt Regency Cleveland at the Arcade, which have contracts with SEIU; and does not include the following Hyatt hotels with current UNITE HERE collective bargaining agreements: Grand Hyatt New York, Andaz 5th Avenue, Andaz Wall Street, Hyatt Hotel (Highway One Monterey), Hyatt Regency Monterey, Hyatt Penn's Landing (Philadelphia), Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina, Hyatt Regency on King (Toronto), Park Hyatt Toronto, Hyatt Regency Vancouver, Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Hyatt Rosemont, Hyatt Place San Jose, Hyatt Place Braintree (MA), Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn, and Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, the non-opened Park Hyatts in New York, the non-opened Portland Oregon Convention Center Hyatt Hotel, the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, the Hyatt The Pike Long Beach.
© 2012 Hyatt Hurts. All rights reserved.
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