Patrick questions Hyatt CEO on housekeeper firings
Governor Deval Patrick weighed today in on the abrupt firing of 100 housekeepers at three Boston-area Hyatt hotels, calling the Chicago-based chain's chief executive, Mark Hoplamazian, to ask him to reconsider the decision to outsource that work.
"I'm troubled by it," Patrick said in a phone interview with the Globe. "I can see that there are good people who had a job one day and don't the next, and who seem to have been replaced by people who are just going to be paid a lot less. At a time when the economy doesn't make for a lot of other options for people, it's doubly troubling."
Hyatt Hotels Corp. laid off the entire housekeeping staffs at the Hyatt Regency Boston, Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and Hyatt Harborside Hotel after the morning shift had ended on Aug. 31, citing challenging economic conditions, and immediately replaced them with workers from an out-of-state staffing firm. The housekeepers had been training those very workers, from Georgia’s Hospitality Staffing Solutions, whom they were told would be filling in for vacations.
Patrick hasn't asked state workers not to stay at Hyatt hotels -- "I haven't gone that far yet," he said -- but said he was very concerned about how the firings were handled.
Hoplamazian was willing to talk about it further, Patrick said, but wanted to gather his thoughts first. The two plan to talk again this weekend or on Monday morning. "At a minimum, we ought to be talking about how to make as soft a landing as possible for people," Patrick said, "and he did seem to be open to that."
Patrick mentioned his call to Hoplamazian during a press conference held today at his home in the Berkshires.
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