Taking a page from 19th century American robber barons, the managers of a Chicago Hyatt decided to whip together some old-fashioned strike breakin’ fun with the help of 10 large heat lamps, the Tribune reports. USA! USA! USA!
The lamps were switched on against the picketing workers at 7am – at which point it was already 28C out. Adding 10 heat lamps will increase that figure considerably! The picketers, who are on strike over the working conditions of hotel maids, say the lamps kept shining for an hour.
The radiant dispersion technique was then followed by an equally hot-aired corporate non-apology:
Hyatt regrets the events that occurred at the Park Hyatt Chicago and apologizes to everyone who was impacted by them. After looking into the incident, we have determined that the decision to turn on the heaters was made by a manager. It was clearly a decision that was not in line with our values or with our corporate policies. We have a long history of respecting our associates’ rights and caring about their well-being and this unacceptable behaviour is certainly is not illustrative of that history. We can assure you that this was an isolated incident and such a thing will not happen again.
That rogue manager is really a sharp thinker – I mean, what better way to dissuade a large group of employees dissatisfied with their working conditions than by blasting them with hot air in the middle of July? That is a glaring infraction of the Hyatt Non-Heatlamp Torture Policy! Two demerits! [Chicago Tribune]