Subcontracted Hyatt Worker Fired after Testifying about Subcontracting Abuses

UNITE HERE represents workers in the U.S. and Canada in:

July 26, 2012

On Tuesday, July 24, Hyatt gave us yet another reason to Vote Hyatt the Worst Hotel Employer in America.

That day, subcontracted Hyatt housekeeper Elvia Bahena was fired—just two weeks after she testified publically about the abuses she faces working in the Indianapolis hotel industry. Elvia testified at a City Council committee hearing in support of the “Freedom to Work” ordinance, a law designed to remove the barriers that low‐wage hotel workers face in obtaining employment directly for hotels. At the city hearing, Elvia shared her story of the wage theft and blacklisting that she has experienced.

Despite wide spread community support, the hotel industry in Indianapolis has come out in force against the ordinance. In fact, at the committee hearing where Elvia spoke, dozens of high-level hotel managers were in attendance, including the General Manager of the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, Brian Comes. Elvia is also part of a federal lawsuit that was filed this past January against the Hyatt, 8 other major Indianapolis hotels, and the subcontractor HSS.

Elvia is a mother of three young children. Before being fired, she was barely making ends meet. Now, community supporters in Indianapolis are organizing a food drive on her behalf, because she unable to buy groceries for her children. They are also picketing in front of the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis to protest Elvia's termination.

Elvia is one of many Hyatt hotel workers who are speaking out and standing up across the country. And she is not the only worker who has faced termination after telling the truth in a public forum. This past March, Morena Hernandez was suspended less than two weeks after she spoke out about abuses women of Hyatt suffer on International Women’s Day. Last October, Hyatt Regency Santa Clara fired Martha and Lorena Reyes—two sisters with 30 years of combined experience—after an objection to the posting of demeaning pictures of housekeepers in bikinis on a bulletin board at work.

Please stand with Elvia today: Vote Hyatt Worst.