152 hotel workers arrested outside Hyatt

Protesters are led away by police [Getty Images].

Hundreds of hotel workers looking to highlight staff cuts and working conditions staged a sit-in protest outside the Hyatt Hotels Corp flagship Chicago hotel leading to 152 arrests for blocking traffic.

Two hundred workers arranged with police to be arrested for blockading the hotel.

Organisers accused Hyatt and its owners, the Pritzker family of taking unfair advantage of the recession to “hurt workers”.

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However, a Hyatt spokeswoman told reporters that workers should give voice to their complaints at the bargaining table, instead of trying to drum up membership with street protests.

"In some cases, we've been trying to get them to come to the negotiating table for the past nine months," Hyatt spokeswoman Farley Kern said.

"While we have come to expect a certain amount of union posturing during negotiations, this delay is unfortunate, and work actions can be destructive to the still very fragile economy," Hyatt said in a statement.