Hotel workers, Hyatt agree on contract

Labor union Unite Here and Hyatt Hotels Corp. have announced an agreement to resolve a long-standing contract dispute and end a 2-year-old global boycott against the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa.

Pending ratification, the agreement covers Hyatt employees represented by Unite Here in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Hono­lulu, where the last contract for workers at Hyatt’s Waikiki hotel expired June 30, 2010. If ratified, the new contract will cover workers until 2018.

"We look forward to a new collaborative relationship with Hyatt. This agreement shows that when workers across the hotel industry stand together, they can move forward, even in a tough economy," D.Taylor, Unite Here president, said in a news release. "Both organizations deserve credit for working out this constructive step forward," he said.

Unite Here declined to give specifics on the Waikiki contract until workers have had a chance to vote on the proposal. However, the national union said that all of the proposed contracts provide retroactive wage increases and maintain health care and pension benefits.

A key contract provision would enable employees at several Hyatt hotels to vote on whether they want to be represented by Unite Here, which represents some 300,000 hospitality industry workers in the U.S. and Canada.

"We are delighted that our associates in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Waikiki will have contracts and the pay raises that go with them," Doug Patrick, Hyatt’s senior vice president of human resources, said in a news release.

Unite Here said this round of negotiations with Hyatt was more arduous than usual. The union reached agreements at Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts and Starwood Hotels & Resorts more than two years ago.

In the last several years, Unite Here Local 5 union workers at the Hyatt Waikiki hotel launched a consumer boycott of the property and participated in several actions, including a one-day strike, pickets and rallies. Most of the actions coincided with similar events at other Hyatts throughout the nation.