(ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA) - After more than 70% of Housekeepers signed Union Authorization Cards, those Workers employed at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia have filed for a Union Election.

Hyatt Workers, who are organizing for respect on the job, higher pay and benefits and fair workloads, want to Go Union with UNITE HERE Local 25, which represents 6,500 hospitality Workers in Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland.

“I am responsible for cleaning spaces over fourteen floors of the hotel during a single shift,” said Aymane Mokrane, a Houseperson at the hotel. “One day recently I was so tired I slept on the floor after getting home, I couldn’t even make it to my bed.  We need the same Union protections as Workers at the Hyatt Regency in Washington have.”

The U.S. Government is a major customer of the Hyatt Regency Crystal City and has spent more than $4 million at the hotel in the past 10 years.

Federal customers of the hotel include the Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Labor, with multiple branches of the military using the hotel for monthly meetings.

Other Non-Union Hyatt Hotels in the D.C.-area are also used regularly by the Federal Government, like the Hyatt Regency Bethesda, which is frequently used for conferences and other Federal Health Agencies.

“A super-majority of Housekeepers at the Hyatt Crystal City have spoken loud and clear - they want a union,” said Paul Schwalb, who serves as Executive Secretary-Treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 25. “Their work is exhausting and even painful.  They deserve the standards, rights, respect, wages and benefits that Union Hotel Workers in D.C.’s Hyatts have won.”

To Directly Access This Organizing Labor News Story, Go To: Local 25 Blog — UNITE HERE Local 25 (local25union.org)