Archive for category: News

“It takes $40/hour to live in Metro Vancouver!”

Vancouver, BC – Room attendants, front desk agents, cooks, dishwashers and other workers at Hyatt Regency Vancouver walked off the job early this morning to launch a one-day strike. The workers are represented by UNITE HERE Local 40.

While Hyatt charges guests between $500 to $1200 per night, hotel workers are frustrated with the company’s failure to address wages that keep up with Metro Vancouver’s insanely unaffordable housing costs and inflation. The company wants to push the cost of medical benefits increasingly onto workers and, despite the decades of service that workers have invested in Hyatt, the company refuses to meaningfully improve workers’ pensions.

“I work hard and raised my boys on this job. But we’re on strike today because we cannot keep up with the cost of living in Vancouver.  I can’t cut back on rent, so that means I end up cutting back on groceries and other basic expenses.  If my rent goes up anymore, I might be homeless.  I can’t afford to move because rent is so high anywhere you go,” said Wanna Nualmeunwai, a Hyatt room attendant.

In other cities where housing costs and inflation have skyrocketed, like Los Angeles, Hyatt has agreed to higher wages and benefits for hotel workers.

“It takes $40/hour to live in Metro Vancouver.  Hyatt and other Vancouver hotels are charging astronomical room rates, cutting back services, and expecting workers to accept less while they’re being squeezed daily by the rising cost of living. Hotel workers are professionals in a key sector of our local economy who deserve to earn enough to live in Metro Vancouver,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40.

In Vancouver, the hourly wage, or rental wage, required to afford a 2-bedroom apartment while working full-time, and not spending more than 30% of one’s income, is $43/hour, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. That is a far cry from what the average full-time hotel worker earns.

Nearly two thousand hotel workers are in contract bargaining in downtown Vancouver over wages that keep pace with the city’s escalating cost of living. Meanwhile, Vancouver hotel room revenues were the highest on record last year – nearly $1.4 billion – and growing.

The workers’ collective agreement expired in 2022. There have been no negotiations with company representatives since February.  Workers bargained their last contract after being on strike for one month in 2019.

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

Vancouver, BC — Striking workers are outraged after Harry Lali, the former NDP transportation and highways minister, crossed their picket line at The Deck at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport this weekend.

Workers from the hotel and The Deck have been on strike for over three years. Despite being clearly informed about the ongoing labour dispute in late May and explicitly urged by UNITE HERE Local 40 to relocate his family’s event, Mr. Lali and his family proceeded to hold the event at The Deck.

The situation escalated as Mr. Lali approached the picket line, leading to a heated confrontation between him and the strikers. Despite being aware of the dispute in advance and having the opportunity to hear the workers’ stories, Lali still chose to cross the line, accompanied by a group of men. His entourage appealed to the strikers, many of whom are Punjabi women, asking for permission to cross the picket line. The women stood firm, insisting that Lali, a former union member himself, knew better than to cross the line.

“Despite being informed well in advance about the ongoing labour dispute, Mr. Lali chose to cross the picket line. In May, Mr. Lali were notified months ahead about the situation, yet they decided to hold their event at a venue where workers on strike. This decision demonstrates a flagrant disregard for the workers fighting for the return of their co-workers, as well as respect and dignity on the job,” said Gulzar Grewal, Vice-President of UNITE HERE Local 40.

The BC Labour Relations Board recently issued a cease-and-desist order to the hotel and its majority owner, Sukhminder Rai, for threatening and intimidating strikers on the picket line. Rai threatened to fire one of the workers the day after the strike is settled, falsely told workers there are no kitchen jobs to return to, attempted to induce striking workers to retire, and made multiple insulting and threatening comments to one of the female strikers.

During the strike, the Labour Board has issued several cease-and-desist orders against the hotel for using impermissible replacement workers and ordered random inspections.

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