Media Advisory: Hilton Metrotown Workers to hold Press Conference in Response to Fairmont Hot Springs Resort CEO’s Sexist Comments

WHAT: Locked out Hilton Metrotown hotel workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 40, will hold a press conference today, Tuesday March 22 at 11 am, to address sexist remarks made by Fairmont Hot Springs CEO Vivek Sharma. At the B.C. Tourism and Hospitality Conference in Richmond on March 9, Sharma asked women in the audience to stand and be honoured for International Women’s Day. Then he told them to “go clean some rooms and do some dishes.”

WHERE: Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, 6083 McKay Avenue, Burnaby

WHEN: TODAY, Tuesday, March 22 at 11:00 AM (Pacific) 

WHO: Locked out Hilton Metrotown workers and a representative from UNITE HERE Local 40

WHY:  UNITE HERE Local 40 launched a website last spring, B.C. Unequal Women, to call attention to how hotels have used the pandemic to roll back the clock on women’s economic security. Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, Pan Pacific Vancouver, and Pacific Gateway hotels terminated their employees over the course of Covid. Many of the workers affected were long-term and women of colour. Hilton Metrotown workers, on behalf of B.C. women hotel workers, will be speaking out and responding to Vivek Sharma’s comments.

VISUALS: Locked out hotel workers, many of whom are women of colour, speaking and holding signs.

For more information, please contact: Stephanie Fung, 604-928-7356, [email protected], or Michelle Travis, 778-960-9785, [email protected].

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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.