The Ups and Downs of an Elevator Strike [by Robert Hookey]

I love zombie flicks, not because they’re the flavor of the month in popular culture, but because they tell you everything you need to know about the human race’s ability to cope with a crisis.

Zombie films paint a clear picture of man’s inability to confront his greatest fear: the fall of modern society.

Watch any film in the zombie genre and you’ll see the greatest threat lies within. Zombies are the secondary threat. Any protagonist worth his salt knows keep one eye on his fellow man and the other on his shotgun or machete.

(Bear with me, we’ve reached the point at last.)

In the last week I have watched helplessly as seemingly-ordinary travelers degenerate into living zombies, incapable of rational thought or action. Their tipping point? The simple act of waiting for an elevator.

Please allow me to explain.

If at all possible, block out the static and array of images that regularly clog our brains (mortgage payments, unrealized dreams, troubles at work, the latest antics of that twerp with the lesbian haircut and the undeserved career), and picture this scenario, if you will:

You’ve directed your hard-earned salary to a single noble cause, a break from the daily grind and all its challenges.
The family/spouse are loaded up and you head out.
You pick a luxury hotel and brave traffic and the summer heat to get there.
You wait in line.
You maneuver the crowds and drag your luggage to a bank of elevators.
It is at that moment that you realize Fate has you in its sights.
Most of the elevators are out of service.
You curse Fate.
Travel in this day and age is laced with a heavy dose of irony; a vacation is supposed to be filled with relaxation, a buzz or ten and if at all possible, a few doses of afternoon delight, not tension, mind-numbing sobriety and zero afternoon delights.

However, as a bellman in Niagara Falls, Ontario, I can tell you with absolute certainty that thousands of this city’s hotel guests are currently trapped with a vacation nightmare, courtesy of the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC).

The IUEC has been locked in a strike action for eight weeks now and the crossfire is beginning to hit the tourist industry where it lives: the ole money belt.

Attractions like the Journey Behind the Falls have suffered breakdowns – a ridiculously rare occurrence – and over a hundred tourists at a time have been terrified, frustrated and confused when they should have been awestruck, joyful and calm.

Hotels have had to award their guests financial remuneration for their inconvenience.

Guests have had to check their tempers and subdue their urges to physically assault each other while waiting for an elevator to arrive. In some cases they have failed miserably.

Service workers like myself have had to develop a set of negotiating skills worthy of a United nations ambassador in order to convince an increasingly hostile public to hand over a gratuity after waiting thirty minutes or longer for service.

Personally, I’m accustomed to chanelling my inner Murray and dazzling guests with my dry humor. The key is to do away with the “Us vs. Them” mentality that has dominated my industry for decades and establishing a relationship of trust. My guests need to realize they’re dealing with a fellow working class dog and not a soulless “yes man” with no empathy for their wants and needs.

But my efforts are sometimes as useful as spitting on a brush fire when it comes to quelling the anger of a mob hellbent on exacting revenge on whomever is responsible for threatening the sanctity of their vacation. Seriously, I’ve had to break up fist fights between mothers pushing baby strollers.

Among the angry declarations I have been confronted with over the course of the last few days, the following stand head and shoulders above the rest:

“I can’t wait for an elevator, I’m tripping!”
“My kids become cannibals when they get hungry. I need to get going NOW!”
“This is 2013, why are web waiting for an elevator? Things shouldn’t break down in 2013!”
“We just drove fifteen hours to get here, why I waiting for an elevator? This is no way to treat black people!”

If I’ve done my job correctly you’re smiling right now, but fair warning, things are about to get all-too real, as the kids say.

FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2013, 10 a.m.

As I made my way to our service elevators to embark on my first call of the day, I was confronted with the second scenario I would like you to envision.

While drinking in the majestic beauty of Niagara Falls, your chest begins to tighten.

Breathing requires a Herculean effort.

You are confronted with your own mortality.

While waiting for a EMS crew to arrive you are informed every elevator in the hotel is out of service.

You wait and consider the wisdom of choosing Niagara over a less dangerous destination. Like Beirut.

And so I stood for ten minutes – which, in an emergency situation is equal to an hour – with two emergency workers, six firemen, three construction workers, eight renovation workers, a houseman and several enraged, frustrated guests who wandered back and forth through our service area.

Then the worst-case scenario unfolded.

A second EMS crew arrived for an entirely different emergency.

Then a third.

Never mind inconvenience, this situation had become a matter of life and death. Who would have been held accountable had a life, or worse, three, been lost?

The hotel?

The emergency workers?

The IUEC?

The elevator companies whose operating tactics inspired this strike in the first place?

Personally, I know who I have been blaming for weeks now, but finger-pointing is, well, pointless. We’ve already crossed the point of no return and a bottomless chasm looms in the distance.

I believe in the principle upon which unions were originally founded; the little guy needs a voice with some power and authority behind it, but in a strike action there is no winner.

This strike has cost Ontario hotels at the very least, tens of thousands of dollars in compensation to irate guests.

It has cost untold damage to the relationship between elevator companies and their clients.

It has inspired hundreds of travelers to flood sites like TripAdvisor with angry comments and warnings to other travelers to avoid certain hotels solely on the basis of their elevator service.

And finally, it has inspired me to vent my frustrations in this forum, something I am reluctant to do as I have always enjoyed a friendly relationship with every elevator repairman I’ve encountered over the years.

As of this writing a new collective agreement was reached on Friday afternoon between the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 50 and the National Elevator Escalator Association.

Techs were back on the job immediately and repairs have begun, although it will take more than a tool belt and years of experience to repair the damage this strike has wrought to the human factor involved in techs’ relationships with their clients.

That’s all for now, folks. See you in the lobby… I’ll most likely be the one slowly banging his head against the elevator door.

[by Robert Hookey]

[The preceding article is a guest submission for NiagaraHub.com – the content or opinion expressed within does not necessarily reflect the opinion of NiagaraHub.