Update: Protest Tonight at Nanaimo Golf Club
Nanaimo Women’s Business Network has Moved Event to Coast Bastion!
NANAIMO – Locked out staff and their supporters will be joined by BC Federation of Labour President, Irene Lanzinger, today to protest the Nanaimo Golf Club.
Date: May 5 @ 5pm
Where: Nanaimo Golf Club
Two dozen UNITE HERE Local 40 workers, including servers, bartenders, cooks, dishwashers, janitors and the Chef have been locked out by the Nanaimo Golf Club for 11 days.
We have just learned that the Nanaimo Women’s Business Network has moved their event out of the Nanaimo Golf Club and to the Coast Bastion this evening. They join other area groups who have relocated events due to the lockout.
“We understand groups are inconvenienced by the Club’s lockout. We hope this sends a strong message to the Club to bring back the workers and negotiate,” said Shelly Ervin, officer of UNITE HERE Local 40.
The Club has not offered to bring staff back to work nor made any overtures to restart negotiations.
UNITE HERE Local 40 represents thousands of hospitality workers throughout BC.
Contact: Michelle Travis
Direct: (604) 473-4805
Email: mtravis@unitehere.org
Nanaimo Golf Club Locks Out Food & Beverage Staff
Nanaimo Golf Club has locked out two dozen Clubhouse servers, bartenders, cooks, dishwashers, janitors and the Chef, all members of UNITE HERE Local 40. Workers have had nine bargaining sessions with the Club and have seen little to no progress at the bargaining table. As of 4pm on April 24th, Club management has locked out workers in response to a strike notice served to the Club earlier this week.
Food and beverage staff are seeking respectable wage increases to help cover the cost of living in Nanaimo. The Club has offered an average 1% annual increase over a 3-year term. The Club has also refused to expand eligibility for staff to obtain medical coverage or offer other benefit improvements.
The Club recently invested $4 million to replace its old clubhouse with a 23,000 square foot facility with an expanded restaurant, lounge, banquet halls and other facilities for members and guests. Staff want to know why management refuses to invest in its Clubhouse staff.
The Clubhouse staff are professionals who work hard to serve members and guests. UNITE HERE Local 40 has made it clear to the Club that workers are prepared to continue bargaining to resolve outstanding issues.
For more information, contact Shelly Ervin, Local 40 negotiator, at 604-230-4017 or servin@local40union.com.
Clubhouse Food Staff Authorizes Strike at Nanaimo Golf Club
Burnaby, B.C. – Food and beverage workers at Nanaimo Golf Club have voted 85% in favor of authorizing a strike in response to non-productive negotiations with the Club. The two dozen servers, cooks, bartenders, dishwashers and janitors, members of UNITE HERE Local 40, served 72 hour strike notice to the Club on Tuesday, April 21, 2015.
Clubhouse staff – some of whom have worked at the Club for over a decade – are seeking to improve access to medical coverage and dental benefits, improve wages, instate a retirement benefit and to ensure that new employees receive adequate entry-level wages.
The Club has refused to expand eligibility for staff to obtain medical coverage or offer better dental benefits. The Club is offering workers increases worth less than 1% in the first year and has even threatened to take away employees’ meal benefit. When the Club was asked to reconsider, the Club offered a limited meal benefit of merely soup and bread.
The Golf Club recently invested $4 million to replace its old clubhouse with a 23,000 square foot facility with an expanded restaurant, lounge, banquet halls and locker room facilities for members and guests.
“The Club has invested millions of dollars into their new clubhouse. Food and beverage workers want to know why the Club isn’t investing in its staff,” said Shelly Ervin, Local 40 negotiator. “We know members and guests appreciate the service our members provide. However, the staff is quite disappointed with the Club’s current approach to negotiations,” said Ervin.
Vancouver Hotel Workers Win Record Wage Increase & Transit Benefit
UNITE HERE! Local 40 members keep improving standards for all of Vancouver’s hotel workers. Our union has set the standard for hotel workers locally in recent years by introducing room attendant workload protections, raising wages, and now, by reducing the cost of getting to and from work. On May 1st workers at the Hyatt, Westin Bayshore, Pinnacle and Four Seasons hotels will receive an employer paid 15% reduction in the cost of transit. Following our lead, two non-union hotels have also adopted this new benefit.
Union activists and staff kicked off our transit campaign, “Hello to Go”, a year ago. We went out and talked with thousands of hotel workers, Union and non-Union, about one step they could all take together to make Vancouver a more affordable place to live.
Local 40 made transit a key bargaining issue last summer. We also drew attention to this campaign when hotel member, Hyatt engineer Ferdinand “Ding” Ramos, ran for Vancouver City Council in the Fall of 2014. He ran proudly as a hotel worker, talked about how important tourism is to the local economy and called on the City to help reduce the cost of transit. Ding received an impressive 8,000 votes, but more importantly, he captured the attention of politicians, hotel workers and their employers.
Ding’s campaign pushed Local 40 negotiations forward, winning the 15% transit discount in six Vancouver hotels – four Union and two non-Union.
With this contract victory, Local 40 is proud to join Toronto, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu for negotiations in 2018. In the meantime, the Union will continue to push for further reductions in the cost of transit for hospitality workers.