BOSTON (WHDH) - Residents living near the Westin Marriott in Copley Square have filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston, claiming the city should do something about the noise coming from hotel workers who are on strike.
The complainants say hotel workers are banging drums for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
“I’m sorry we’re making noise, but I blame the company who’s getting us in this situation,” said Henrique Fernandez, a hotel worker on strike. “One job should be enough, which means a person should not work three jobs just to tend to the family with a big corporation like Marriott.”
Calling for better pay and better hours, hundreds of hotel workers are on strike. They’re walking picket lines at seven Marriott-owned hotels in and around Boston.
The people who live around the picketers say they have no issue with the picketers, but it’s simply too loud.
Ed Allock, an attorney representing them said in part, “The Condominium Associations respect the union picketers’ right to protest…but we believe that the behavior is not protected speech and is in violation of the Noise Ordinance promulgated by the City of Boston and that is the City’s responsibility to curtail it as it is occurring on a City sidewalk.”
In response, the president of the hotel workers union said, “We recognize the right of white millionaires to take legal action to try and silence black and brown working class people who are trying to stand up for themselves and their families.”
Workers say that while they don’t want to harm nearby citizens, it is Marriott that is to blame.
“I have a lot of respect for every citizen,” Fernandez said. “We didn’t choose to be out here but we were forced to be here because they’re underpaying us.”
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