Vancouver hotels sue chanting, picketing employees over 'intolerable' noise

The lobby of the upscale Hyatt Regency hotel on Burrard Street in Vancouver is ordinarily hushed, a grandiosehall permeated by subtleelevator music, soft-spoken front desk staffand the occasional whirr of the coffee machine at the in-house Starbucks.

But in recent days, the calm has been shatteredby the pounding racket of strikingemployees marching in a picket line up and down the sidewalk outside the main entrance.

Chants from workers demanding safe, stable work are led by a colleague bellowing into a plastic horn.Othersupporterssit on the hotel's front stoop, pummellingsnare drums and plastic buckets with drumsticks hooked up to microphones and a sound system.

Picketers nearest the epicentre wearheadphones or soft, orange ear plugs stuffed into their ears.They lean in and shout at each other to talk.

The noise they're making, they say, is to draw the public's attention to their cause.

Workers used plastic buckets and drumsticks during the strike on Monday morning

Hospitality employees on strike outside Hyatt Regency Hotel

5 years ago

Duration 0:24

Hospitality workers on strike sit outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Vancouver and use plastic buckets for drums on Sept. 30, 2019.

The Westin Bayshore and Pinnacle Hotels, nearer to the harbour, have also seen similar strike action since workers walked off the job Sept. 19. On Friday, all three hotelsfiled simultaneous lawsuits against the workers' union over the "substantial and unreasonable amount of deafening noise."

"The noise is intolerable," reads one lawsuit filed on behalf of the Hyatt's parent company, Innvest Hotels, adding the sound lasts from morning until night.

The union workers, represented by Unite Here Local 40, have been holding what they call an "open-ended strike" outside the hotels since the lockout began. Room attendants, chefs, front-desk staff and other employees walked off the jobafter more than a yearof negotiations over issues related to safety, workload and job security failed to yield results.

"Instead of suing us, they should be trying to work with the union and make things better for their workers," union spokesperson Sharan Pawa said in response to news of a lawsuit during a phone call Monday. "It's disappointing."

As well as the allegations over excessive noise, the hotels claimstriking employees are trespassing andhindering people,particularly guests, who have beentrying to maneuver around the hotels since the strike began.

The lawsuits claim union staffknow their behaviour is not only disturbing the peace but could cost the hotels financially.

The companies are asking the court for an order to stop employees from picketing on its premises. They also want workers to stop blocking anyone going to and from the hotels and forbidding them from making any noise louder than 70 decibels about the same level of noise that would come from a vacuum cleaner.

The hotels' claims have not been tested in court.

Noise bylaws enforced by the City of Vancouver state no one is allowed to make noise in a public place that "unreasonably" disturbs peace and quiet in the area.

The lawsuits come after each of thethree hotels lost a labour board challenge over new, replacement managerswho were hired after striking staffers left their jobs. The B.C. Labour Relations Code bars employers from hiringreplacement workers to do work usually done by union workers on strike.

A board member found the Hyatt, Westin and Pinnacle all violated the code and ordered the replacement managers off the job, though they noted the breach was not "egregious."