Labor deal helps Hyatt workers.
Hotels have rehired only about 150 out of 600 union workers since reopening in summer
A new labor agreement will give more than 400 laid-off workers at the two Hyatt hotels downtown the chance to get their jobs back — over new hires — until March 2023.
But how soon the Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk rehires them will depend on the recovery of San Antonio’s hospitality industry, which has been decimated by the pandemic.
So far, Hyatt Hotels Corp. has brought back no more than 150 of the 600 unionized workers since reopening the Grand Hyatt in early September and the Hyatt Regency in late July, said Willy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 23, which represents workers at the two hotels.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty for the hotel industry in the short-term, for sure,” Gonzalez said. “But there are signs of hope.”
He said some small meetings and catered events are returning to the Grand Hyatt, the 1,003room hotel that’s connected to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention
Center. And the 630-room Hyatt Regency recently benefited from an influx of spring break vacationers.
And rooms at both hotels are filling up because of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, which got underway last week.
“The hotels continue to bring back to work as many laid-off hotel colleagues as possible, based on business demand,” Michael D’angelo, Hyatt’s vice president over labor relations, said in a statement. “It is our sincere hope that eventually, we can be reunited with many members of the Hyatt family because we know how important these valued colleagues are to our business.”
Gonzalez said the new agreement also guarantees that the two Hyatt hotels will restore daily housekeeping service, preserving housekeeper positions.
The hotels had suspended daily housekeeping for most guests staying multiple days, Gonzalez said. The one exception was for members of Hyatt’s loyalty program.
Hyatt and other hotel chains have largely stuck to a post-pandemic policy of not cleaning rooms until after a guest’s check
out, a move they said was necessary to protect housekeepers and room occupants from potential COVID-19 exposure.
“I believe some of these hotel employers that aren’t doing daily routine cleaning are using this pandemic as a way to have less workers and save on their economics,” Gonzalez said.
Hyatt’s D’angelo did not address the housekeeping changes in his statement.
The hotels will also provide personal protective equipment for workers and maintain social distancing and its mask requirement as part of the agreement.
Hotels provided 8,293 jobs in the San Antonio area at the start of 2021. That’s a little more than half the 15,446 positions that existed in February 2020, before the start of the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Maria Valdez, a Grand Hyatt housekeeper who lost her job last March, is anxious to return to work.
“I’m hopeful I will have my job back soon,” says Valdez, a breast cancer survivor and five-year Grand Hyatt employee.
She said she had been proud to have the job, which paid $14.75 an hour and provided her with health insurance to pay for twice-yearly cancer screenings.
Her insurance expired three-months after she was laid off.
Valdez, an immigrant from Mexico, developed breast cancer in 2010 and was in treatment for five years. Without insurance, she’s been skipping her screenings.
Her $500-a-week unemployment check is just enough to support her and her 12-year-old son.
She hasn’t looked for a job at another hotel because she said other housekeeping positions pay pay significantly less than Hyatt.
Jake Tucker is also looking forward to eventually returning to work at the Grand Hyatt. He’d worked in the catering department, setting up tables, chairs and podiums for events. He earned about $15 an hour before the pandemic.
“My best friends are my fellow workers,” said Tucker, a union shop steward at the hotel. “I can’t wait until I can see them again.”