I am not going to be one of those guys who blogs endlessly about the same thing, but I did want to re-visit the issue of the Hyatt hotels firing all their housekeepers in order to hire contractors who will do the same work for about half the wage.
This morning on the radio, I heard a lot of people calling in to say "oh, it's a business decision, they can do what they want, a lot of those people will be hired back, blah blah."
So I feel the need to explain the importance of jobs like this. Steady jobs with benefits equal stability for families and therefore communities. Imagine a kid who has to move from apartment to apartment, stay with relatives sometimes, change schools, and maybe not always have clothes for school or enough food to eat. Or maybe they do have a place to live but no parental supervision because their parents have to work two jobs in order to afford the rent. (This isn't some liberal sob story fantasy--anyone who works in urban schools or in urban healthcare can name actual examples of kids like this.)
Now imagine a kid whose parents can afford to pay rent and can stay in the same schools, who has enough money to get what they need for school, and who sees working for a living as an option that can pay off instead of a sucker bet that leads only to exploitation.
Which kid do you think is going to have a brighter future?
Which kid would you rather have living next door to you?
Hyatt just went public, and the stock price may well go up as a result of this cost cutting move. But that increase in shareholder value is coming at a high price for the cities in which Hyatt Hotels are located.
Hyatt hotels are being bad citizens of Massachusetts, and our normally hapless governor is right to call for a boycott because, all moral considerations aside, the social chaos caused by the loss of over 100 jobs that pays a living wage costs the Commonwealth of Massachusetts money.
