Workers Demand Investigation as ABC Council Rushes Luxury Development Approvals
Following last night’s public hearing at Vancouver City Council, UNITE HERE Local 40 President Zailda Chan is calling for an investigation into the ABC majority’s treatment of predominantly racialized women workers who testified about affordability and how developers shape the city we live in.
The union is also demanding an immediate moratorium on major hotel and luxury-development hearings and approvals until its legal and human rights complaints are addressed and Vancouver voters have had their say.
“Workers are not taking anything from Vancouver. They are asking City Hall to stop giving away the city’s future,” Chan said. “The mayor calls worker solidarity ‘foreign interference’ while Council rushes approvals for international billionaire developers like Holborn. Pause the approvals, resolve the legal challenges and let Vancouver voters decide who should shape their city’s future. This is bigger than any single project. It is about public trust, democratic accountability and who gets to shape Vancouver’s future: the people who live and work here, or billionaire development interests that stand to profit from the city’s land.”
UNITE HERE Local 40 is calling on Council to:
- Investigate the treatment of union members who participated in recent public hearings.
- Pause major hotel and luxury-development hearings and approvals immediately and hold until after the municipal election.
- Disclose developers’ past commitments, promised public benefits and records of performance.
Rally at Vancouver City Hall to Pause Holborn Project
What: Hotel Worker Rally before Public Hearing
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2026
Time: 5pm start time
Location: Vancouver City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue.
Contact: Michelle Travis, [email protected], 778-960-9785