Construction is underway for the Harper Court development in Hyde Park. By 2013, the community will be host to a brand-new Hyatt Hotel. The Hyatt is notorious for its track record in employee abuse. At locations across the country (including Chicago’s own Hyatt Regency downtown), workers have gone on strike and demanded boycotts to protest unfair labor practices. As the community prepares for our new neighbors, SSN is launching a long-term campaign to demand justice for Hyatt workers in our neighborhood. As both taxpayer money and university interests are at stake in Harper Court, we demand accountability, starting with a guarantee that hotel workers will be allowed to unionize.
Learn more and sign the pledge to honor Hyatt Boycotts: Hotel Workers Rising
Campaign Updates:
11/11/11: Hyatt workers come to campus to tell their stories of on-the-job abuse and discuss taking action with UofC students.
11/15/11: SSN hosts community teach-in featuring Chicago Hyatt workers as well as guests from HEI-owned W Hotel in Los Angeles.
11/30/11: Campus Call-In to Alderman Will Burns, demanding union jobs at the Harper Court Hyatt, is a success! Enough students call that Burns’ office says, they get the point.
An advertisement by a Hyatt subcontractor depicting hotel staff as low-cost, disposable items in a vending machine.
