Hyatt hotels infamously turned heat lamps on striking workers during heat wave - 2011
How could someone with baggage like that be trusted to a cabinet-level White House appointment?
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For Immediate Release
July 28, 2011
Annemarie Strassel
312-617-0495
Charges filed against Hyatt for turning heat lamps on striking workers during heat wave
(Chicago, IL)-Hotel workers are filing charges with the government against Hyatt for turning heat lamps on striking workers at the Park Hyatt Chicago during a brutal heat wave that swept the region last Thursday, July 21. After nearly two year of contract negotiations, hotel workers went on strike in protest of Hyatt's abuse of housekeepers and the company's ability to outsource jobs.
Ten heat lamps in the awning above the Park Hyatt front entrance were turned on striking workers when the strike began Thursday morning and were left on for about an hour. Heat lamps were turned off shortly after reports about them surfaced in the press. That day, an excessive heat warning was issued by the National Weather Service, with heat index readings climbing above 100 degrees in downtown Chicago. Hyatt released a public statement the following day, admitting that a manager was responsible for turning heat lamps on striking workers.
Charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by UNITE HERE Local 1, the union representing housekeepers, dishwashers, bellmen and other hotel workers at the Park Hyatt Chicago, contend, "The employer assaulted the employees and tried to fry them by shining heat lamps on them in the middle of what was already a hot, humid day."
"They put the heat lamps on us, like we were nothing," said Linda Long, a cook at the Park Hyatt. "If the heat didn't kill us, the heat lamps would."
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http://www.unitehere.org/presscenter/release.php?ID=4386