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NFL Players Boycott Hyatt

Jul 25th, 2012

DeMaurice Smith, Executive Director of the NFLPA

Hyatt housekeepers have a powerful new ally–the NFL Players Association. The NFLPA joins the growing ranks of supporters of the global Hyatt boycott, standings shoulder to shoulder (with many big shoulders indeed) with Hyatt housekeepers in their struggle to win fair treatment and safer working conditions.

On July 24, 2012, DeMaurice Smith, the Executive Director of the NFLPA, announced that he would call on NFL players, who he referred to as “big brothers” of Hyatt housekeepers, to not spend a dime in Hyatt hotels until they were treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Smith emphasized that NFL players know what it’s like to work in pain, and that they recently faced their own “speedup” when the owners wanted them to play an extra two games per season. He noted that only by joining together were the players able to defeat the owners’ proposal: “We’ve learned the same lessons that these housekeepers know. That if they stick together and fight for what’s right, they have a chance. If they try to fight by themselves, if they let a corporation divide them, it will be worse for everyone.”

Smith also mentioned that Doug Patrick, Hyatt’s Vice President of Human Resources, had sent him a letter urging the players to not endorse the boycott. Smith replied with a strong letter to Hyatt that outlines four questions regarding the company’s health and safety and subcontracting practices.

This is not the first time that the NFL players have stood with Hyatt workers. On Superbowl weekend in January, Smith addressed workers at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis who have been fighting for years for a fair process to form a union. Like millions of others, he was in town for the Superbowl, but he told the Hyatt workers: “The proudest moment that I’ll have while I’m in this city is standing right here with you.”


The call to "Boycott Hyatt" does not include the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa and the Grand Hyatt Kauai, which have current collective bargaining agreements with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union; The Hyatt Regency Montreal, which has a contract with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN); the Hyatt Regeny Milwaukee and the Hyatt Regency Cleveland at the Arcade, which have contracts with SEIU; and does not include the following Hyatt hotels with current UNITE HERE collective bargaining agreements: Grand Hyatt New York, Andaz 5th Avenue, Andaz Wall Street, Hyatt Hotel (Highway One Monterey), Hyatt Regency Monterey, Hyatt Penn's Landing (Philadelphia), Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina, Hyatt Regency on King (Toronto), Park Hyatt Toronto, Hyatt Regency Vancouver, Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Hyatt Rosemont, Hyatt Place San Jose, Hyatt Place Braintree (MA), Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn, and Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, the non-opened Park Hyatts in New York, the non-opened Portland Oregon Convention Center Hyatt Hotel, the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, the Hyatt The Pike Long Beach.

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