August 9, 2023

Dear Editor, 

It's 6:30 a.m., the drums and yelling start. They call it a strike yet people are working inside the building and clients leave when the noise starts.

The decibel levels would make a rock band proud. And the only ones that are mostly affected are the residents of the apartments around this pseudo strike ("Tensions Escalate on Hotel Picket Lines," August 8, 2023). 

I live in a low-income housing unit at 5th and Colorado across the street from this “strike.” If this was a real strike, why are these hotels still functioning? Why hasn't the whole blue collar staff walked out?

I was a member of the Teamsters and the United Aerospace Workers unions, and when we even threatened a strike at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, they immediately hit the bargaining table.

In a strike you walk off the job and shut down the company and the union pays you while you are striking for as long as the strike lasts and that comes from your union dues, that's why you pay it.

Also, if you have the full support of the workers within the union why do you need to bring in homeless people by offering them free tee shirts to march in the picket line? I saw a homeless guy I know playing the drum with them wearing a tee shirt they gave him.

As far as I know that is an illegal union practice, but who am I to say? I've only belonged to two very powerful unions and had to pay dues in case of a strike.

This is not a strike. In my opinion as a former union member, this is a radical group of people who only want to disrupt people's lives. SAG and the Writer's Guild shut down Hollywood by walking off the job.

If they're not on the picket lines, where are the 14,000 hotel union workers when these hotels are still open for business?

Charles Springer
Santa Monica