PRESS RELEASE: UNITE HERE Local 40 Responds to Extension of Federal Government Takeover of Pacific Gateway Hotel through March 2021

For Immediate Release:
December 3, 2020

The Pacific Gateway Hotel has just announced to workers that the federal takeover of the hotel as a quarantine site will be extended through March 31, 2021. Hotel management claim the government now controls the hotel and has told workers that the takeover will extend beyond workers’ right to be recalled to their jobs – most of whom have served the hotel for decades. Workers are seeking 24 months to return to their jobs and bridge them through the pandemic.

Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40, responded to this new development:

“The failure of the federal government to make sure hotel workers aren’t hurt by its takeover of the Pacific Gateway is astounding.  Workers at the hotel – predominantly women and immigrant workers – have been kept in the dark for months about the duration of the federal contract and why feds are using a contractor to perform hotel workers’ duties. Now the hotel is suggesting workers could permanently lose their jobs because of the extended federal contract.

This is unacceptable from a federal government which has given lip service to caring about workers hard-hit by the pandemic. We want to know how the government plans to resolve this situation – one in which their actions will cause hotel workers to lose their jobs.”

The Pacific Gateway Hotel is located near Vancouver International Airport and employs more than 150 long-term hotel workers. The workers are represented by UNITE HERE Local 40.

Media Contacts:
Stephanie Fung, 604-928-7356, sfung@local40union.com; or Michelle Travis, 778-960-9785, mtravis@unitehere.org.

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UNITE HERE Local 40 is the hospitality workers’ union and represents members in the hotel, food service and airport industries throughout British Columbia. Learn more at UniteHereLocal40.org.