Business & Tech
LAX Hotel Suing Union Over Noisy Demonstrations
The hotel alleges union members are using a large drum, dozens of whistles, wooden ratchet noise makers and vuvuzelas during demonstrations.
LOS ANGELES, CA - Management at an LAX-area hotel on Tuesday filed suit against a union, alleging some union members have created a nuisance by chanting, beating a drum and using noise makers, allegedly in violation of a city ordinance.
The Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Airport filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against UniteHere! Local 11. The complaint seeks damages as well as an injunction directing union organizers to stop "loud or boisterous conduct."
Some of the hotel's guests checked out early and said they will not return until the demonstrations end, while others asked for and received refunds, the suit states.
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The suit also states that some pilots and flight attendants from Southwest Airlines and Air Canada are going to other hotels because the noise disrupts their rest, the suit states.
A union representative did not immediately return a call for comment.
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According to the complaint, the union has been trying to organize the hotel workers since February 2015. In doing so, they have engaged in daily demonstrations that violate the Los Angeles municipal noise regulation, according to a private acoustical consultant hired by the hotel, according to the lawsuit.
The union activities initially involved passing out handbills and using banners, the suit states. The union representatives also projected a large bedbug on the hotel's facade and demanded meetings with hotel management, the suit states.
After the hotel fired two workers in April for urinating in a trash can in an employee restroom, the union intensified its efforts with up to 40 members gathering on a sidewalk near the hotel daily to shout such slogans as "get your money back, check out," and "we are in the fight," according to the lawsuit. Some of the demonstrators have chanted the slogans using a megaphone, the suit states.
The union members also have recently used a large drum, dozens of whistles, wooden ratchet noise makers and vuvuzelas, the suit states.
Members of the LAPD Labor Relations Unit have been present for most of the demonstrations, but have not intervened to stop the union activities despite hotel requests to do so, according to the lawsuit.
— City News Service, photo courtesy of the Crowne Plaza Hotel
