Workers Stage 12-Hour Protest at Sheraton Van Airport Hotel

WHAT:  12-hour protest by workers from the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel and other area-hotels.  Starts with 7am Wake-Up action, choir performance at 1pm, and ends with an afternoon rally at 5pm.

WHO:  Hospitality members of UNITE HERE Local 40, MLA Mabel Elmore, MLA Shane Simpson, community supporters representing the Kairos Network, UBC Social Justice Centre and the Labour Chorus.

WHERE:  Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel, 7551 Westminster Hwy, Richmond

WHEN:  Thursday, December 1, 2016; 7am– 7pm

 

BACKGROUND: 

RICHMOND – Workers at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport say the high-end hotel has to stop paying low-end wages. The 180 unionized housekeepers, front desk staff, bellhops and cooks will rally outside the hotel for 12 hours Thursday starting with a Wake-Up noise demonstration at 7am.  Workers are seeking wage and workload parity with comparable hotels in the area that pay about $4 more per hour.

The call for a fair wage adjustment during current contact talks comes during unparalleled growth in the hotel industry.  Vancouver’s hotels are enjoying record profits with revenues expected to continue growing in 2017.

Sheraton’s workers earn an average of $8,000 a year less than workers at similar high-end hotels.  Hotel workers, mostly immigrants and mostly women, are speaking out against disrespectful treatment and the economic impact of being left behind. They want owner Larco Hospitality to improve standards and workload safety at the hotel and bargain directly with the union.  Little progress has been made in negotiations so far. Contact talks are scheduled to resume on Friday.

 

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