Hilton Metrotown Workers Hold Action at South Korean Consulate in Vancouver

Vancouver, BC – Today, dozens of locked out Hilton Metrotown workers held an action outside the South Korean Consulate in Vancouver, urging their Ambassador to Canada, Keung Ryong Chang, to resolve the four month lockout involving a prominent Seoul-based hotel owner. The workers have been locked out by hotel management for 125 days. Hilton Metrotown is owned by DSDL Co., which is headquartered in Seoul.

The action follows multi-city actions in Canada and the U.S. Workers and allies recently delegated South Korean embassies in Ottawa and Washington D.C., as well as consulates in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Boston, and Seattle. They met with consulate and embassy officials, leafletted consulate staff, and demonstrated outside consulate buildings.

Instead of waiting for the pandemic to ease to bring workers back to their jobs, Hilton Metrotown fired almost 100 of them and locked out the rest in April this year. DSDL is owned by the prominent Cho family, who founded Hyosung, the world’s leading producer of spandex.

There has been an outpouring of labour and community support for the workers. The BC Federation of Labour issued a boycott of Hilton Metrotown in May, which could cost the hotel up to $3 million in lost business alone. On August 8, the Alberta Federation of Labour kicked off a boycott of three DSDL-owned hotels in Edmonton.

In a letter to the South Korean ambassador, UNITE HERE Local 40 President Zailda Chan expressed concerns that the crisis at Hilton Metrotown could negatively impact good faith and trust between communities of the two countries.

“It’s very unfair and shameful how DSDL refuses to bring us back despite repeated calls from workers and their supporters across Canada and the U.S. Many of us staff are long-term and women. We deserve to keep our jobs because we worked hard to help this hotel grow and become successful over 21 years,” said Liza Secretaria, locked out night auditor at Hilton Metrotown.

Media Contacts: Stephanie Fung, [email protected], 604-928-7356; or Michelle Travis, [email protected], 778-960-9785

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UNITE HERE Local 40 is a labour union representing workers in the hotel, food service and airport industries throughout British Columbia. Learn more at UniteHereLocal40.org.