On November 19, Vancouver workers will join San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other cities across North America in solidarity actions to support the "Hyatt 100," housekeepers fired from 3 Boston Hyatt hotels.

All 100 housekeepers at Hyatt's three non-union Boston area hotels were called into meetings and fired on August 31. They were given their last paychecks, plastic garbage bags and told to clean out their lockers and leave.

Many had worked at the hotels for more than 20 years. The long-time Hyatt housekeepers earning $16/hour were replaced by subcontracted employees making $8/hour. The long-time Hyatt housekeepers cleaned 16 rooms per day. The contract workers will clean 30-32 rooms per day.

Unions are stuck in a rut that seems to be getting deeper every day. We are losing members to layoffs, plant shutdowns and to bankruptcies that are the result of a worldwide financial crisis. Our membership and influence are shrinking at exactly the moment when union power is needed to protect millions of workers from wage rollbacks, outsourcing, unemployment and the devastation of entire communities dependent on single industries.