Archive for category: News

Hospitality workers and labour allies call for a boycott of the ‘scab’ airline, which sends passengers across picket lines, undermines strikers’ fight for a living wage

 

Richmond, BC – TODAY, as part of their Day of Action, striking Sheraton Vancouver Airport hotel workers with fellow hospitality workers – represented by UNITE HERE Local 40 – joined by labour and community allies will rally outside of the Air Canada gates at Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Following a morning press conference at YVR Airport, the demonstration will continue to inform airline passengers that Air Canada sends their guests across workers’ picket line at the Sheraton, Hilton, and Marriott Vancouver Airport hotels in Richmond. Hospitality workers and their allies are demanding a public boycott of Air Canada – Canada’s ‘scab’ airline – until picket lines are respected.

Larco Hospitality operates the Sheraton, Hilton, and Marriott Vancouver Airport hotels in Richmond, which form British Columbia’s largest hotel complex. The hotels regularly accommodate large flight crews landing at YVR Airport as well as airline passengers who have experienced flight delays. Sheraton Vancouver Airport workers launched their strike five months ago in their fight for living wages. Since then, five airlines have withdrawn their business from the hotel complex in solidarity with the striking workers – WestJet, Porter Airlines, UPS, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines.

The BC Labour Board has deemed the three hotels a common site and is permitting striking workers to picket the perimeter of the hotels. The extended picket line runs daily and affects guests staying at Sheraton, as well as the non-union Hilton and Marriott hotels. Despite this, Air Canada continues to send flight passengers over the picket line, putting their distressed customers in the middle of a labour dispute.

“It is unacceptable that Air Canada is sending their distressed passengers across our picket line. We have been on strike since June fighting for living wages so we can take care of ourselves and our families in Metro Vancouver. The airline is disrespecting hospitality workers as well as their own guests by this disgraceful behavior. We ask the public to boycott this scab airline,” said Felisha Perry, a Banquet Server at Sheraton Vancouver Airport.

The BC Federation of Labour has declared a public boycott of the Sheraton, Hilton, and Marriott Vancouver Airport hotels until the workers at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport hotel settle their strike. A boycott is also in effect at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport hotel in Richmond where workers are also on strike.

 

Protest Details:

WHAT: Mass Protest against Air Canada

WHEN: Thursday, December 7^th at 5:00 PM

WHO: Striking Sheraton Vancouver Airport hotel workers joined by fellow hospitality workers, labour and community allies

WHERE: Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Air Canada Gates, Level 3 Departures

VISUALS: Workers chanting, marching, and speaking with colourful banners, signs, and bullhorns

 

Media Contact: Sharan Pawa, 604-710-1693, sharan@unitehere40.com

Special Investigating Officer will randomly inspect hotel under consent order

 

Richmond, BC — The BC Labour Relations Board has issued a pair of consent orders declaring Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport breached the Labour Code again during a protracted strike by members of UNITE HERE Local 40.  Under the orders, the employer admitted to over a dozen breaches of the Code. This follows an earlier consent order issued by the Board in July in which the employer admitted to using impermissible replacement workers during the strike.

Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport hotel (formerly Pacific Gateway) re-opened to the public this summer despite an ongoing labour dispute and only a skeleton crew to operate the hotel. Under the consent award granted on September 19, the employer, an affiliate of PHI Hotel Group, admitted to violating the law when it used contractors and other impermissible workers to conduct fire rounds, move and assemble furniture and setup guest rooms to prepare the hotel for customers, undertake repairs, and clean rooms, floor hallways, and The Deck following renovations.

Under the second consent award issued September 21, the Board declared hotel management breached the Labour Code when they assigned certain front desk duties to impermissible workers and in greater portion than would have been assigned before the strike; when the hotel used new managers to illegally backfill for senior managers so they could perform bargaining unit work; and continued to use third parties to perform routine maintenance tasks.

In a new development, the Board ordered a Special Investigating Officer to randomly inspect the hotel and investigate the work being performed there. The Board ordered the employer to cease and desist from using impermissible replacement workers and contractors to perform union work at the hotel, or to assign a greater proportion of struck work to managers than before the strike, and ordered the hotel to provide the Union with advance notice of any contractor operating in rooms available for rental, and to disclose which tasks are to be performed and an explanation of why it is needed.

In BC, it is illegal for employers to hire replacement workers during a strike.

Workers at the property have been on strike for over two years. They struck after the employer terminated 143 long-term workers – mostly women – during the pandemic and demanded drastic concessions from remaining workers. Strikers have picketed the hotel daily since May 3, 2021

Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport is operated by PHI Hotel Group and majority owned by Sukhminder Rai.  Mr. Rai and 10 of his affiliated companies are currently under investigation for allegations of fraud and misappropriation of $16 million of public funds. His partners in three Alberta hotels have filed a lawsuit against Mr. Rai; those hotels were put into receivership last month.

 

Media contact: Sharan Pawa, 604-710-1693, sharan@unitehere40.com