Heat lamps in a heat wave... HA! Good one.
You picket their hotel and they turn on the heat lamps during a 100 degree day. That's the Chicago way.
It's a long way from the Pinkertons and the strike busters, but one Chicago hotel is not about to give picketers an easy time.
Hotel workers at the Park Hyatt on Michigan Ave. kicked off a day-long strike Thursday morning to protest the working conditions of housekeepers. The strike coincides with housekeeper protests at Hyatts in nine other cities after 22 months of stalled contract negotiations.
And they picked one of the hottest days in a decade to do it. Temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees. And just to make sure the picketers were nice and toasty, the hotel turned on the outside heat lamps above their picket line used for guests during the winter.
"This is one of the hottest days of the summer," said Daniel Medina, 42, a bellman at the Park Hyatt for two years. "I work at that door every single day and only in winter time do those need to be turned on. Somebody did it on purpose. It's ridiculous."
Medina said the lights do not turn on automatically and that only bellhops, doormen and engineers access the room that controls the heat lamps. He said there was no way it could be inadvertent.
Of course it was an accident. An oversight by someone. And as soon as the hotel was alerted to the fact that heat lamps were on they turned them off and handed out water...an hour later.
It's a long way from the Pinkertons and the strike busters, but one Chicago hotel is not about to give picketers an easy time.
Hotel workers at the Park Hyatt on Michigan Ave. kicked off a day-long strike Thursday morning to protest the working conditions of housekeepers. The strike coincides with housekeeper protests at Hyatts in nine other cities after 22 months of stalled contract negotiations.
And they picked one of the hottest days in a decade to do it. Temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees. And just to make sure the picketers were nice and toasty, the hotel turned on the outside heat lamps above their picket line used for guests during the winter.
"This is one of the hottest days of the summer," said Daniel Medina, 42, a bellman at the Park Hyatt for two years. "I work at that door every single day and only in winter time do those need to be turned on. Somebody did it on purpose. It's ridiculous."
Medina said the lights do not turn on automatically and that only bellhops, doormen and engineers access the room that controls the heat lamps. He said there was no way it could be inadvertent.
Of course it was an accident. An oversight by someone. And as soon as the hotel was alerted to the fact that heat lamps were on they turned them off and handed out water...an hour later.
Mayan, I have never stayed at a Hyat before. I will make sure I go out of my way to stay at one now though. 
