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Gov. Deval Patrick

(BOSTON, MA) -- Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has stepped into the ring for Round Two in the ongoing Boston hotel housekeeper firing controversy.

Patrick warns he will direct Massachusetts employees to boycott Hyatt Hotels Corp. properties when conducting state business unless the chain rehires the 98 housekeepers it fired last month as a cost-cutting move.

(Please see, "Boston Politicians Back Fired Housekeepers at 3 Hyatt Hotels, Sept. 21, 2009.")

In a third attempt to convince Hyatt officials to reverse its decision, Patrick said in a letter to Chicago-based Hyatt CEO Mark S. Hoplamazian:

Mark Hoplamazian

"I understand first-hand how difficult it is to manage through the current economic challenges without compounding the disruptions the times have caused.

"But surely there is some way to retain the jobs for your housekeeping staffs, as other hotels have done, and to work with them to help the company meet its current challenges, rather than tossing them out unceremoniously to fend for themselves while the people they trained take their jobs at barely livable wages.''

Hyatt Regency Boston general manager Phil Stamm responded.

Hyatt Boston housekeepers protest rally

He said  Patrick's talk of a boycott  "directly threatens the 600 associates who work in Hyatt properties and who live and work in Massachusetts at a time when businesses and individuals are cutting back on travel during the worst economic period we have seen in decades.

"We do not understand why the governor is putting more Massachusetts jobs at risk instead of working with us to find jobs for employees affected by the realities of these unprecedented economic challenges.''

Hyatt Harborside Boston

Hyatt officials said  the company has created a task force to help the dismissed housekeepers find new jobs, offered retraining assistance, and extended their health care coverage for three months.

The Hyatt Regency Boston, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and the Hyatt Harborside fired 98 housekeepers Aug. 31, replacing them with $8-an-hour employees from Georgia-based Hospitality Staffing Solutions. Many of the housekeepers had been cleaning rooms at the chain's hotels for more than 20 years. They  earned about $15 an hour.

Hyatt Regency Cambridge

Some of the housekeepers said they were asked to train their replacements and were assured that the crews were only vacation and holiday fill-ins. The cleaning company and Hyatt deny these claims.  Hyatt  maintains the changes were neither sudden nor secretive.

The firings prompted an outpouring of anger. Other politicians and business owners have also called for a boycott of the chain. The National Employment Lawyers Association canceled its contract with the Hyatt Regency Boston and is searching for another Boston hotel to host its October seminar.

Paul Watanabe

"There's no question that the story about what happened to the Hyatt workers was made public in a way that, to say the least, was unusual --splashed across the front page of the morning newspaper," notes Paul Watanabe, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston

"While perhaps these kinds of actions were not unique to Hyatt, certainly it was a . . . disturbing portrait of corporate behavior,'' Watanabe says. "Consequently, I believe the governor as well as many others were moved to respond.''

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