The Episcopal Church will not do business with Hyatt hotels nationally until the hotel chain reinstates the 98 housekeepers recently fired from three Boston and Cambridge hotels and replaced with lower-paid subcontract workers.

The decision, made by the church’s Executive Council at its Oct. 5-8 meeting in Memphis, was instigated by the Diocese of Massachusetts’ General Convention deputies and bishops, who submitted a  resolution through the council’s Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking.

“This boycott would be consistent with the church’s faithful witness to economic justice and fair treatment of all workers,” the Massachusetts deputation says in the resolution’s explanation.

The full text of the resolution is here. 

The resolution, adopted on Oct. 8, directs the church’s Office of General Convention to refrain from using Hyatt hotels for General Convention and the interim meetings of its subgroups until the fired workers “are offered the opportunity to be restored to their original employment and work conditions and provided with back pay for time missed due to their fall 2009 layoffs.”

The council amended the Massachusetts resolution to include an invitation to the church’s ecumenical partners to join its action, and to ask the General Convention Office to monitor the situation and report back to the Executive Council’s February 2010 meeting.

The Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the Episcopal Church’s triennial General Convention, and it has charge over the church’s mission and ministries between conventions.

“The resolution received good support and it was absolutely a right move to do this through the Executive Council,” the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, a council member and co-chair of the Massachusetts General Convention deputation, said in a phone interview.  “The council was pleased that our deputation and bishops brought this to its attention because it is a local issue with national implications that didn’t necessarily have national attention.”

Before submitting their resolution, the Massachusetts deputies first sent a Sept. 24 letter, at the request of the Rev. Anne Bonnyman, Rector of Trinity Church in Boston, to the General Convention’s secretary, the Rev. Gregory Straub, alerting him to the firings and requesting that the church hold no meetings in Hyatt hotels over the next three years. 

The deputies received prompt replies from Straub and from General Convention Manager Lori Ionnitiu, saying that the Episcopal Church has no current contracts with Hyatt hotels.  Hotel contracts have not yet been signed for General Convention’s 2012 meeting in Indianapolis, according to Douglas, so the boycott resolution was well-timed to have potential impact.

“The president of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson, on the last day of General Convention reminded all of us that our role and responsibility is much more than simply attending General Convention,” Douglas said.  “The fact that this deputation in Massachusetts has been watchful of fair labor practices in our midst, and our Christian commitment therein, demonstrates a taking to heart of President Anderson’s invitation to fulfill our baptismal covenant through our role as deputies.”

In the local uproar following the Aug. 31 firings, some businesses reportedly have canceled convention business with Hyatt, and Governor Deval Patrick threatened a state boycott if the housekeepers’ jobs weren’t restored.  Hyatt subsequently offered the fired workers new positions through a subcontractor, temporarily at their former pay; a majority of them have declined that offer, according to news reports.

--Tracy J. Sukraw

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