Hamilton City Council is now meeting, as needed, without a public gallery due to repeated disruptions.
The Hamilton Ontario Water Employees Association (HOWEA), on strike since May 14, has repeatedly interrupted meetings with leader Greg Hoath heckling and drowning out Council and delegates.
Council will continue moving to a private room in the event of future disruptions.
Pay Is the Issue: HOWEA Wants More, City Only Willing to Give What It Gave to Other Unions
HOWEA is seeking 6 to 10 per cent wage increases in the first year, averaging 20 per cent over four years. The City is offering the same as other unions accepted: 3.75 per cent in year one, then 3 per cent annually—a gap neither side will bridge.
Both sides appear to be prepared for this strike to drag on indefinitely. As he was leaving the Council Chamber on June 25, Hoath promised that “the snow plows will not be getting out” this winter.
Audio: Hoath Heckling and Yelling on June 25
The following audio clip captures nearly all of Hoath’s in-Chamber comments on June 25. (The snow plow comment is near the end)
Escalating Disruptions
The disruptions began May 28 when HOWEA attended City Council and repeatedly interrupted proceedings. Hamilton Police were called and Hoath was escorted out.
The following morning, HOWEA effectively shut down the City’s public transit system by setting up a picket line at the transit garage. HOWEA only permitted one bus to exit during each traffic light cycle.
On June 11, Hoath and the striking workers returned to the Chamber.
Chairing the meeting was Deputy Mayor for June, Ward 2 Councillor Cameron Kroetsch.
He permitted Hoath a few minutes to heckle from the public gallery, asked him not to cause further disruptions, and shortly thereafter, the strikers voluntarily left the Chamber.
However, on the way out of the Chamber, they made negative verbal comments about upper-level city managers that drew the ire of many around the council horseshoe.
On June 18, Kroetsch made clear he would not permit a repeat.
“For the last few meetings, we’ve dealt with sustained interruptions of different kinds that have not only made it difficult for us to conduct our business, but have also included comments made that directly and inappropriately target our staff,” Kroetsch stated.
“I’ll not be entertaining this activity during today’s Council meeting.”
Hoath responded by heckling back at Council, calling them cowards, and demanding they meet the Union’s demands.
Among the statements Hoath made, he told Council that his union plans to increase disruptions of public transit, saying that if Council cared about low-wage workers who are being most impacted by repeated cancellations of morning bus services, they would meet his demands.
Councillors left the Chamber and continued the meeting in nearby Room 264 without the public present.
Events repeated themselves a week later when Council began a special planning committee meeting on June 25. The striking water workers sat in the gallery. When the second delegate began to walk to the podium, Hoath shouted that he wanted delegate status to discuss the labour dispute, saying Council should be talking about the labour dispute.
“We have a six-week labour disruption … it’s time the City Council stop playing politics.”
Planning Committee Chair, Ward 4 Councillor Tammy Hwang asked Hoath to stop disrupting the meeting. Hoath continued, and Council again moved to Room 264. Hoath remained in the Chambers for around 15 minutes after Council left.
Other Councils Experiencing Similar Disruptions
During this municipal term in Ontario, at least two other municipal councils have moved to online-only meetings in response to disruptive behaviour.
Sarnia moved online due to disruptions by a council member. The council has since resumed in-person meeting, with the disruptive council member restricted to attending by video conference.
Pickering meets by video conference following disruptions and threats from supporters of a radical right-wing council member.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: July 3, 2025
Last updated: July 3, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
Just to add some clarification, on the wage ask front, there seems to be some misinformation on behalf of both the unions demands and the cities offer.
On the unions side they are asking for wage schedule parity with similar roles in CUPE and I’ve never seen a percentage value posted by the union while I’ve been following it, only 3$ an hour and presumably similar percentage increases in the following 3 years as CUPE got in their contract.
On the cities side they’ve just said it was “consistent” with the other unions offer, but the news releases from the city manager and labour disruption update state that it was a new wage grid that would result in 6-10% for the majority of operators, averaging 4.72%. So it can’t be the exact same offer the other unions got because it isn’t a flat increase. Additionally the numbers seem misleading, because if the majority is getting 8%, and the average is 4.72%, then depending on how big the ratio of majority/minority is the minority must be only getting 0.72% or less on average, so the offer must have had winners and losers.
Adding my own opinion, I feel like the unions demands are reasonable considering the water distribution operators HOWEA is for asking parity with make approx 41.5$/hr, while water treatment operators in halton and waterloo make 43-44.5$/hr respectively.
I agree. If other city workers got
3 1/2 % but these workers were behind their peers to begin with, they will keep falling behind. Pay them what comparable workers get and let’s move on. It sure doesn’t seem like it will be a huge expense for the city and happy employees make good employees.