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Press Release: UNITE HERE Local 40 Urges Council to Prioritize Housing Affordability over Hotel and Developer Profits

Vancouver, BC – UNITE HERE Local 40, the union for hospitality workers, is raising concerns about three proposals before Council on May 5 that fail to address Vancouver’s urgent affordability crisis for modest- and lower-income residents.

Two proposals will go to public hearing, while a third will bypass a public hearing entirely.

“Fast-Tracking Rezoning” – A Citywide Giveaway to Developers:

City Hall is proposing a mass rezoning of 2,348 properties across Vancouver to fast-track 6-8 storey market rentals and hotels – with no requirement for below-market housing. Key corridors like Main Street, East Hastings, Fraser Street, Victoria Drive, West 4th, West 41st, Dunbar and others would be upzoned. The likely result: higher land values and rents, increased speculation, and displacement of renters, small businesses and workers.

Despite already approving thousands of hotel rooms, the City is offering incentives to hotel developers and would allow these projects to bypass public hearings, regardless of local area impacts.

These changes are explicitly designed to improve “project viability” for developers, while local area residents are largely left out of the process.

Cambie Street Project: No Affordable Housing, Minimal Public Benefit:

A proposed 29-storey tower at 888–896 Cambie would include 246 hotel rooms and 165 market rental units – but not a single unit of affordable housing. The applicant proposes to demolish a heritage building and would grant the developer a massive density increase (from 5.0 to 19.5 FSR) in exchange for just $1.38 million in community amenity contributions.

With average downtown market rents requiring incomes that exceed $90,000 -$150,000, these units will be out of reach for most Vancouver residents.

888 W 8th Hotel – No Public Hearing:

The third proposal, a 16-storey hotel, will bypass a public hearing altogether despite potential impacts on the quiet, residential street. If approved, this will be the third hotel project approved within walking distance of the area.

Council has approved projects with over 3,000 hotel rooms and nearly 4,000 more in the pipeline. Despite adopting a policy adding 10,000 hotel rooms by 2050, hotel approvals are moving so quickly that Council is on track to reach that number years – if not decades – ahead of schedule, all while the affordability crisis goes unaddressed.

Homes not Hotels:

This is a fundamental misalignment with what should be the city’s top priority; affordability.  Many tourism workers cannot afford to live in the city they serve.

“These proposals double down on hotels and high-priced rentals, while doing nothing for affordability,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40. “Council should decide: are they governing for residents, or for developers?”

UNITE HERE Local 40 is urging Council to reject these proposals.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Media Advisory: Hospitality Workers to Demonstrate During FIFA Congress in Vancouver

Vancouver, BC – Today, as the 76th FIFA Congress meets at the Vancouver Convention Centre, hospitality workers from Pan Pacific Vancouver will hold a demonstration to highlight the growing gap between the billions generated by the global sporting event and the affordability crisis faced by the workers who make these events possible.

Squeezed by the cost-of-living crisis in Vancouver, many workers at the Pan Pacific Vancouver struggle to afford to live in the very city they help showcase to the world. Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia are committing hundreds of millions in public funds to prepare for the World Cup, while FIFA and major hotels, like Pan Pacific, stand to reap huge financial gains. Workers will call for fair wages, improved working conditions, and meaningful government action to address the cost-of-living crisis impacting hospitality workers across the city.

WHO: Hospitality workers from Pan Pacific Vancouver, members of UNITE HERE Local 40, and community allies.

WHEN: Thursday, April 30, at 4:15 PM

WHERE: Outside Pan Pacific Vancouver, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, BC.

VISUALS: Workers and allies will be marching, carrying signs and chanting with bullhorns.

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

 

Press Release: Council Sides with Developers, Approves Coal Harbour “Floatel” Despite Community Opposition

Vancouver, BC – In a decision that sidesteps community concerns, a majority of Vancouver City Council approved a controversial 250-room floating hotel in Coal Harbour.

The vote came despite opposition from residents and hospitality workers, including members of UNITE HERE Local 40, who rallied at City Hall ahead of the public hearing.

“Yet again, Council has chosen a developer over working people,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40. “This is another giveaway to a hotel developer that doesn’t need it, while hospitality workers struggle to afford to live in the city they serve.”

The project, a six-storey floating hotel roughly the length of two NHL hockey rinks, will be moored in Coal Harbour through at least 2060. It will partially block public waterfront views of the harbour and north shore along the seawall, and at the Burrard Street end panoramic view, the Vancouver Convention Center and Canada Place.  Neither the publicly available applicant materials submitted to the city, nor the city’s public notice, provide a clear illustration of how popular viewing areas will be blocked.

Council approved the project despite concerns about minimal public benefits. The developer refused to provide a $3.6 million contribution to offset municipal costs, similar to standard payments other developers are expected to contribute. Although some councilors acknowledged they would prefer to see the developer make a financial contribution to offset impacts, they let the developer off the hook with their vote in support.  Instead, the developer offered limited public access to a dock primarily serving its own spa and café.

Questions were also raised pertaining to city oversight of safety inspections. Unlike other developments, the floatel will not have to obtain City building and occupancy permits, relying instead on third-party inspections. Questions also remain about sewage management and the impact on the marine environment.

The project is backed by Finnish operator Sunborn Group and the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre.  Sunborn recently experienced financial difficulties with another floatel, Sunborn Gibraltar. Their Gibraltar operation defaulted on a €60 million bond payment in 2024 and remedied the payment last year.

Highlighting how disconnected the proposal is from everyday Vancouverites, Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre chair Graham Clarke responded to the public’s concerns by suggesting the site could instead become a private mega-yacht marina with no public access. Clarke stated he could “sell memberships to billionaires,” underscoring the project’s focus on private luxury over public benefit.

The decision comes as City Hall pushes to rapidly expand hotel capacity, with thousands of new hotel rooms already approved or underway, while hospitality workers are being squeezed by the affordability crisis.

“This is a bad deal for Vancouver. Rather than address the affordability crisis facing working people in Vancouver, Council is easing the way for luxury hotel developments that fail to contribute their fair share to our city,” said Chan.

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

Media Advisory: Pan Pacific Vancouver Workers to Rally Ahead of 2026 FIFA World Cup

WHAT: Hotel workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 40, will hold a rally this Friday in front of the Pan Pacific Hotel to call for wages that allow them to live in the city where they work, safer workloads, and respect. With a record-breaking cruise season anticipated and the 2026 FIFA World Cup around the corner, Vancouver’s hotel sector is booming. Yet, the workers who deliver world-class service are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living in Metro Vancouver.

WHO: Pan Pacific Hotel workers and members of UNITE HERE Local 40.

WHEN: Friday, April 10 at 3:30pm

WHERE: Pan Pacific Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver,

VISUALS: Workers will be marching, carrying signs and chanting with bullhorns.

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

 

 

Press Release: B.C. Labour Board Takes Rare Step of Granting Second Remedial Certification to UNITE HERE Local 40 at Executive Hotel Property

Board orders hotel to reinstate all unlawfully laid off bellmen and valet, with backpay

Vancouver, B.C. – For the second time in recent months, the BC Labour Relations Board has found that Executive Hotel & Resorts violated labour laws during a union organizing drive and has ordered the remedy of automatic union certification – this time at Executive Hotel Le Soleil.  This follows a similar ruling at The EXchange Hotel earlier this year.

In a decision released March 20, 2026, the Board certified UNITE HERE Local 40 at the Executive Hotel Le Soleil in downtown Vancouver, concluding that the employer’s conduct made it impossible to determine employees’ true wishes through a vote. The ruling builds on a ruling in August in which the Board found Le Soleil management breached the Labour Code by unlawfully interfering in a union organizing drive by steering workers to CLAC, the bosses’ preferred union.

This is the second remedial certification involving and Executive Hotels & Resorts property. In January, the Board issued a similar ruling against management at The EXchange Hotel, finding management illegally interfered with workers’ organizing drive through pressure, intimidation, and inducements.

In its latest decision, the Board found management engaged in a sustained campaign of interference, intimidation, and retaliation during the workers’ organizing drive. Despite the August ruling, the employer continued to support CLAC, even after the Board voided the company’s voluntary recognition agreement with them, declaring the agreement unlawful. Management continued deducting and remitting dues to CLAC and asserted that the rival union remained in place. Vice Chair Bruce Wilkins found this conduct undermined employee free choice and constituted unlawful financial support.

The Board also found that managers pressured workers about their union support, attempted to identify union supporters, and encouraged workers to revoke their membership in UNITE HERE Local 40. In one instance, a manager asked an employee to stop discussing Local 40 with co-workers, while in another, management provided materials to facilitate employees withdrawing their support.

One of the most serious violations occurred when management laid off an entire department during the organizing campaign. Nine Bell and Valet employees, all of whom had signed union cards, were terminated two days before the end of a Board imposed “cooling off period” intended to restore employees’ ability to freely choose their bargaining agent.  In his decision, Vice Chair Wilkins wrote:

“I find the fact that Bell and Valet employees were laid off two days prior to the end of the cooling period to be highly significant. I find that the timing of their layoff provides proof that the layoff was motivated, in part, by anti-union animus, and was done to discourage and frustrate any impending certification application of Local 40 at a critical time in their organizing drive. I find the elimination of the Bell and Valet employees sent an intimidating message to employees who wished to support Local 40 that their jobs may be in jeopardy as well.”

The Board concluded the employer’s conduct had irreparably tainted the organizing process at Le Soleil.

As in the earlier EXchange ruling, the Board determined that lesser remedies would be insufficient and only remedial certification – granting union status without a vote – could restore employees’ rights. This remedy is reserved for the most serious violations of the Labour Relations Code.

The Board also ordered the employer to reinstate all Bell and Valet employees with compensation to the date of layoff, and to return to each employee all dues remitted to CLAC since August, among other remedies.

“This is now the second time the Labour Board has ordered union certification at an Executive Hotel because of management’s egregious efforts to break the law to stop workers from organizing,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40. “The Board has made it clear that when employers interfere with workers’ rights in this way, there will be real consequences.”

Le Soleil workers are the fifth group of hotel workers to unionize with UNITE HERE Local 40 in Metro Vancouver in the past nine months.

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

 

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