Hyatt hotel workers train their H-2B replacements

[mule_train]

Hyatt hotel workers train their H-2B replacements

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Date: Sunday, September 20, 2009 2:26 PM


<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 2056 -- 10/20/2009 >>>>>

The story of Americans being forced to train their foreign H-1B/L-1
replacements is very common in computer/IT and engineering. It's a sad and
humiliating end to the careers of many tech workers who are blackmailed and/or
pressured to train a foreign worker to do their job. To add insult to injury
politicians continue to insist Americans don't have the skills to compete.

The situation unfolding at a Hyatt hotel in Boston is a slightly different
situation because it involves the H-2B visa. Until now there was an assumption
that the forced training wouldn't happen with H-2B because the jobs are
typically lower skilled and lower paying, and therefore less of a target for
this type of corporate cannibalism. This story is proof positive that there is
a race to the bottom to replace Americans who work as housekeepers at hotels
for $15 an hour.

Hyatt Boston isn't hiring their own H-2Bs. They are using a bodyshop called
Hospitality Staffing Solutions to import the laborers. There isn't much
information on HSS on their website:

http://www.hssstaffing.com/

One thing to note is that HSS is designated as a woman owned minority
business. Because of affirmative action regulations minority contractors have
a huge advantage over non-minority companies that bid for outsourcing
contracts. Lately I have seen a trend of women owned minority businesses
moving into the H-1B and H-2B body trade in professions such as teaching,
construction, and now housekeeping.

Ironically Hyatt is using H-2B workers to replace Americans who are mostly
minority. No argument can be made that Hyatt is diversifying their workforce
by doing this, although they might be able to argue that they will be able to
get more workers who are bi-lingual. Click on the links to the articles below
to see pictures of the unemployed Americans to see for yourself who is losing
their jobs (hint -- they are African Americans and whites!). The WBTZ article
has a video that is definitely worth watching.

Hyatt labor condition applications (LCA) for H-2Bs can be viewed at the DOL
website. You must download the files and then import them into a program like
Excel to view the data. Go here:

http://www.flcdatacenter.com/CaseH2B.aspx

Here are a few data points for Hyatt. The economic incentive for them to
replace their American employees is the money and benefits they save from
dumping $15 an hour American employees with benefits for $7 and hour workers
with no benefits.

HYATT REGENCY JACKSONVILLE Cleaner, Housekeeping $6.95
HYATT REGENCY LA JOLLA Cleaner, Housekeeping $7.65
HYATT REGENCY MIAMI ROOFER $8.36


There is no data for Hospitality Staffing Solutions. This is probably because
HSS didn't get into the H-2B business until recently. Once again the DOL is
late on posting current data -- this time they are behind by more than a year
because their most recent data is for 2008 (we are now on the 2010 fiscal
year). HSS probably won't show up until 2010 data is posted.

Give credit to the housekeepers and other workers at Hyatt -- they aren't
taking Hyatt's abuse lying down. Last week they had a protest outside of the
Hyatt. The union that organized the protest has a website here:

http://www.bostonhotelunion.org/aboutus.html


REFERENCES:


http://wbztv.com/local/hyatt.housekeeping.layoffs.2.1190030.html
Workers Laid Off By Hyatt Rally In Boston


http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2009/09/17/housekeepers_lose_hyatt_jobs_to_outsourcing/
A hard ending for housekeepers


http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/09/rally_for_fired.html
Fired Hyatt workers, supporters rally


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http://www.zazona.com/NewsArchive/2009-09-20%20Hyatt%20hotel%20workers%20train%20their%20H-2B%20replacements.htm

[endless october]

1. i'll never stay at a Hyatt again. n/t