National Council of La Raza, (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S, has joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and other Latino organizations in the boycott of Hyatt hotels.
The groups are acting “in response to widespread evidence of harmful working conditions for hotel housekeepers, who are predominantly women of color, including Latinas.” The groups pledged to not hold any conventions, conferences, special events or major meetings at Hyatt hotels covered by the boycott.
UNITE HERE announced the boycott on July 23, 2012. Since then, the effort to push for the improvement of working conditions and ensure the right of workers to organize has received increasing support. To date, the boycott has cost the company more than $27 million in business.
In a study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine examining a total of 50 hotel properties from five different hotel companies, Hyatt housekeepers had the highest injury rate of all housekeepers studied when compared by hotel company.
One of the organizations key request is to improve working conditions and reduce physical strain for housekeepers.
