Press Release: 400 Sodexo Camp Workers Join UNITE HERE Local 40

Vancouver — More than 400 Sodexo hospitality workers at Cedar Valley Lodge (CVL) officially joined UNITE HERE Local 40, BC’s camp workers hospitality union, on Wednesday. UNITE HERE Local 40 and IBEW Local 993, which organized the maintenance department, applied for certification together. Cedar Valley Lodge accommodates up to 2,500 workers working on the LNG Canada project in Kitimat.

Sodexo workers at CVL have been organizing to join Local 40 since the camp first opened in March 2020. Workers will soon begin bargaining for a new collective agreement. The newly organized unit includes housekeepers, kitchen staff, janitors, lounge servers, and guest service agents.

While inflation has been skyrocketing to record levels in BC, remote camp kitchen and housekeeping workers in Kitimat are not keeping pace. Sodexo workers are looking forward to negotiating significant economic improvements that allow them to keep up with the rising cost of living.

“My co-workers and I have been organizing for this moment for a long time. We won the right to be represented by the Union of our choice and the freedom to have a voice. We want Sodexo to pay us the respect at work we deserve and win a standard to keep up with rising cost of living,” said Botchman Jomo, a Second Cook who has worked at Sodexo for two years.

UNITE HERE Local 40 represents over 900 remote camp workers in B.C. and growing.

Media Contact: Michelle Travis, [email protected], 778-960-9785.

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