Media Release: Locked-Out Coast Victoria Workers Take Fight to Calgary
Vancouver, BC — Hotel workers locked-out by Coast Victoria Hotel & Marina by APA held a protest downtown yesterday outside the Coast Calgary Downtown Hotel & Suites by APA, calling on the company to end its lockout in Victoria and negotiate a fair contract that provides living wages, safe workloads, and respect on the job.
The rally marked an escalation in the workers’ fight for better treatment, with Calgary-based members of UNITE HERE Local 40, the Calgary District Labour Council, and other allies joining the protest in solidarity.
Nearly 90 Coast Victoria workers have been locked out since September 17 after standing up for fair pay and working conditions that reflect the rising cost of living. Instead of working toward a resolution, the hotel chose to punish workers for demanding better working conditions.
“After everything we’ve given to this company, Coast and APA locked us out instead of addressing our concerns,” said Melissa Irvine, a locked-out housekeeper from Coast Victoria. “We take pride in our work, but we can’t afford to live in the city where we work. We’re here in Calgary to tell Coast Hotels: if you continue to lock us out, we’ll take our fight wherever you operate.”
As part of their visit to Calgary, locked-out workers stopped at the Consulate-General of Japan to speak with a staff representative and deliver a copy of their public flyer, which highlights the connection between the APA Group chairman’s extremist ideology and the company’s mistreatment of workers in Canada.
“Coast’s owner, APA Group, a multibillion-dollar foreign corporation, is kicking Canadian workers to the curb. Coast Victoria workers are asking for what all workers deserve – living wages and safe workloads,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40. “Instead of retaliation, the company should do the right thing. End the lockout and settle a fair contract now.”
Coast Hotels is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based APA Hotel Group which owns Coast Calgary and Coast Victoria. APA Group has stoked controversy in the past over statements made by its founder and chairman – an ultranationalist Japanese billionaire who has used his hotel properties to spread revisionist history and anti-Semitic tropes.
Media Contacts:
Michelle Travis, [email protected], 778-960-9785, or
Naya Holers, [email protected], 250-889-7682