This past Saturday morning, August 13, Downtown Long Beach resident Debbie Lewis, who lives on Ocean Boulevard across the street from the Westin Hotel, e-mailed a strongly worded letter to newly elected 2nd District Councilmember Jeannine Pearce criticizing Pearce’s friends for banging pots and pans at 7 a.m. outside the hotel. Among those copied on the e-mail were Mayor Robert Garcia, the city attorney’s office and three media outlets, including the Long Beach Business Journal.
Lewis, a watercolor artist by profession, has been critical previously of similar activity, including times when, prior to being elected, Pearce was involved in loud protests outside downtown hotels. There are pictures of Pearce, an organizer with the pro-labor group Los Angeles Alliance For A New Economy, outside the Hilton Long Beach with bullhorn in hand chasing off customers. It’s one of the reasons Lewis endorsed Pearce’s opponent, Eric Gray, in the recent city council election. Pearce won the election by about 325 votes, with more than 11,000 votes cast. Full disclosure: the Business Journal also endorsed Gray, a small businessman.
The e-mail Lewis sent read as follows:
“Good morning Jeannine,
I’ve been awake since a bit after 7 am this morning, having been woken up by the demonstrators in front of the Westin who also got an early start with their bullhorns.
As long as I was awake, I dragged myself out of bed and went to see the police who had arrived so I could fill out yet another complaint for violation of Long Beach’s noise ordinances.
This morning, among their usual screaming epithets, they were also yelling, ‘Yay, Jeannine Pearce!’ Wow, our Councilwoman who is now responsible for improving life in downtown is being cheered on by the very people who are disrupting downtown and have been doing so since at least Feb of 2015.
One of the definitions of psychosis is to keep on doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Surely if the Westin workers wanted to be bullied into joining Unite Here 11, do you not think they would have done so by now?
Clearly the agenda is something other than helping hotel workers.
The pot-banging noise (as the Press Telegram so aptly characterized it) obviously is not getting more union support. It is antagonizing the neighborhood, costing the city untold amounts in police man hours, city attorney and prosecutor costs and degrading our downtown with childish, antiquated antics. How about the union (or better yet, you) sits down with the hotel manager like responsible adults and discusses and solves whatever the real issues are – if there are any in fact.
I sure hope I don’t have to face another 4 years of this while you are in office.
Perhaps you can come up with a solution that satisfies your financial backers and is in keeping with downtown noise ordinances?
Thanks. Debbie.”
Lewis also said she was testifying in court soon against a protestor who had previously been cited by the city. Lewis invited Pearce to show up in court.
Unite Here 11, a Los Angeles-based union, has long been attempting to unionize Southern California hotels, including three on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach: the Westin, the Hilton and the Renaissance. The group’s website encourages boycotting those hotels and others located in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Irvine. Pearce had picketed with the group prior to running for office.
A statement by Pearce on her website while she was running for office, acknowledged the issue raised by Lewis: “Aren’t the picketers being disrespectful to the residents who live near the hotels? Some of the residents on Ocean Blvd. have been outspoken in their annoyance with early morning pickets. Those residents have been asked to express their support for the workers and reach out to hotel management to urge quick resolution of the issues prompting the pickets. While it is certainly annoying to have your morning routine disrupted, it is also incredibly stressful to work in an unsafe environment. Everyone hopes this gets resolved as quickly as possible.”