Press Release: YVR Airport Ends Ride Reimbursement Program Impacting Low Wage Workers

Low-paid food service workers, a majority racialized women, forced to spend hundreds out of pocket on transit costs

 

Richmond, BC – YVR International Airport suddenly on February 1st ended their transit reimbursement program which covers Uber and taxi rides for all airport staff who work outside of SkyTrain hours. This forces already low-paid food service workers to spend hundreds of dollars on ride costs in order to work their scheduled shifts at the airport, which can start or end between 1AM to 5AM.

 

UNITE HERE Local 40 – which represents YVR food service workers – has filed a Labour Board complaint against one of YVR’s largest food service operators, SSP Canada Food Services, for not reinstating its own long-standing practice of reimbursing staff for Uber and taxi rides outside of SkyTrain hours, which pre-dated the YVR program. YVR Airport began its own ride reimbursement program during the pandemic when food service operational hours were extended, at which point SSP discontinued its own program. SSP has not agreed to reinstate its own practice as of February 1st.

 

“I start my shift at the airport at 5:30AM, and I live in East Vancouver,” said Alexis Garciano, a worker at Sal Y Limon at YVR. “To get to there on time, I now have to pay for my Ubers early in the morning which is costing me an extra $100/week. I can’t change my work schedule either, because I have a son who I need to take care of in the afternoons. I’m an international student who also has to pay for my rent and tuition fees. For only getting paid $19.50/hour for my work at the airport, this added transit cost really hurts me and my family.”

 

YVR Airport generated $492 million in 2022 and is on track to exceed that figure in 2023. Meanwhile, hundreds of food service workers at YVR Airport earn well below Metro Vancouver’s living wage of $25.68; recent Union data shows the average food service wage to be only $18.27. A large majority of these workers are racialized women. In addition to their low wages at the world-class airport, some of these workers now have to pay up to $150 per week just to get to work.

 

“I’m a cook and I only accepted 4:30AM starting shifts because I was told I would be reimbursed for ride costs to the airport,” said Jennie Padilla, from Sal Y Limon at YVR. “I already have to pay for my own Compass transit card, and at times when public transit is not an option for workers, we should be reimbursed for rides needed to get to our jobs. YVR set our new earlier opening time, but now they are making the workers suffer by making us pay to get to work. Personally, it’s costing me around $25 every time I need to take an Uber to my morning shift, because no other options are available. This isn’t right, and I’m going to keep standing up for myself and for my coworkers until YVR shows us respect.”

 

Media Contact: Sharan Pawa, [email protected], 604-710-1693

Media Advisory: “Will representatives of the Fijiian Honourary Consul of Canada be crossing our picket line?” Strikers to hold New Year’s Eve Protest at The Deck at Radisson Blu

Richmond, BC – Striking hotel workers at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport hotel will be ringing in 2024 with a protest over a New Year’s Eve event planned at the hotel’s restaurant, The Deck. Strikers have urged party organizers not to cross their picket line and requested they move their event elsewhere. The party is being co-organized by Abhi Prasad, Assistant to the Fijian Honourary Consul of Canada and head of Surrey-based Metropolitan Security, with Sparq Productions.

Workers have been on strike at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport hotel for over two years – since hotel management terminated 143 workers, or 70% of their staff, during the pandemic. This impacted nearly all the hotel’s housekeepers and The Deck staff. Most of the impacted workers are women; many are from the South Asian community and worked at the hotel complex for decades. It is currently the longest hotel strike in Canada.

 

Protest Details

When: New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2023

Where: The Deck at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport hotel, 3500 Cessna Drive, Richmond, BC. (The Deck is behind the hotel, on the marina side.)

Time: 6PM

Visuals: Hotel workers chanting and marching with signs and noisemakers.

 

Media Contact: Sharan Pawa, [email protected], 604-710-1693

Press Release: Calgary-based Bollywood choreographers urged to respect striking workers’ picket line on New Year’s Eve

Vancouver, BC — South Asian hotel workers are urging Sparq Productions, the Calgary-based Bollywood choreography and entertainment provider, not to cross their picket line this New Year’s Eve.  Sparq Productions is slated to hold a New Year’s Eve event at The Deck at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport where workers are currently on strike.

In a letter to Sparq Productions, striking workers call on event organizers to move their event to another venue to avoid crossing a picket line at the Vancouver area hotel. The workers have been on strike at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport hotel since hotel management terminated 143 workers, or 70% of their staff, during the pandemic. Most of the impacted workers are women; many are from the South Asian community and worked at the hotel complex for decades. It is currently the longest hotel strike in Canada.

“Why are the owners of Sparq Productions disrespecting South Asian women by doing business with The Deck at Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport?  Some of my co-workers worked at this hotel for over 40 years before being unjustly terminated; that’s one of the reasons why we made the difficult decision to strike. Why is a dance party more important than supporting those of us within the community?” said Pardeep Thandi, a striking room attendant who has worked at the hotel for over 28 years.

The pair behind Sparq Productions, Tania Lemos and Vishal Malpuria, have ignored calls to move their event to another venue.  Sparq’s owners won the “South Asian Inspiration Award” last year, yet their plan to hold an event across picket lines is hypocritical to uplifting the South Asian community.

One of the affected workers filed a human rights complaint against the hotel employer (formerly named Pacific Gateway) on behalf of 90 women over sex and racial discrimination.  The complaint alleges that hotel management’s terminations disproportionately impacted women and women of colour. The complaint was filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal and is pending.

Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport is majority owned by PHI Hotel Group, which, until recently, managed the Westin Calgary Airport hotel.  PHI Hotel Group and its owner are being sued by affiliates of Siksika Resource Development Ltd, the economic development arm of the Siksika Nation, for alleged fraud and misappropriation of $16 million in funds.  The plaintiffs allege that the owner of PHI Hotel Group, which was responsible for overseeing Westin Calgary Airport when it was used as a federal quarantine hotel, diverted millions received from the government and funneled the money to entities related to PHI Hotel Group. The lawsuit is ongoing.

 

Media Contact: Sharan Pawa, 604-710-1693, [email protected]

Media Advisory – “SFU: Where is the money?” SFU workers to protest over living wage promises

Mass rally to take place Monday 2PM at SFU Burnaby Campus, Dining Commons

 

On Monday, December 11, dining workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 40, and members of the Simon Fraser University (SFU) community will stand together to protest the university’s failure to pay dining workers a living wage.

As SFU administrators collect annual bonuses on top of their six-figure salaries, much of the dining staff earns less than $20 per hour. SFU has promised to pay a living wage to contracted dining workers, even budgeting $1.6 million for the increase. Yet, workers – many of them racialized women – have not seen a dime. Dining staff are not earning nearly enough to afford the cost of living in Metro Vancouver. The estimated living wage for a bare bones budget rose to $25.68 last month.

Many cafeteria workers only work nine months out of the year, which makes the call for living wages even more urgent. Family-supporting wages and year-round work could provide greater stability for SFU dining workers.

Contract workers are overworked and continue to be denied a living wage — more than a year after SFU said it would become a Living Wage Employer. The university treats contracted workers like they are second-class by denying them access to library services, barring their kids from on-campus daycares, and excluding their spouses and children from tuition discounts provided to faculty members.

Meanwhile, food and cleaning workers at UVic and UBC, who are university employees, are spared from holiday layoffs, while enjoying better pay and benefits than their SFU counterparts.

On Monday, students, faculty, professors, union leaders and community members will stand with contract workers to remind the SFU Administration that they cannot continue to ignore the workers who make the university work every day.

 

WHAT: Mass Protest at SFU Burnaby Campus

WHEN: Monday, December 11th at 2:00PM

WHO: SFU contracted dining staff joined by students, faculty, professors, union leaders and community members

WHERE: SFU Burnaby Campus, Dining Commons (8888 University Dr W, Burnaby)

VISUALS: Workers chanting, marching, and speaking with colourful signs and bullhorns

 

Media Contact: Kai Sharpe, 604-889-6960, [email protected]

Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport Admits to Multiple Breaches of Anti-Scab Law

Special Investigating Officer will randomly inspect hotel under consent order

 

Richmond, BC — The BC Labour Relations Board has issued a pair of consent orders declaring Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport breached the Labour Code again during a protracted strike by members of UNITE HERE Local 40.  Under the orders, the employer admitted to over a dozen breaches of the Code. This follows an earlier consent order issued by the Board in July in which the employer admitted to using impermissible replacement workers during the strike.

Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport hotel (formerly Pacific Gateway) re-opened to the public this summer despite an ongoing labour dispute and only a skeleton crew to operate the hotel. Under the consent award granted on September 19, the employer, an affiliate of PHI Hotel Group, admitted to violating the law when it used contractors and other impermissible workers to conduct fire rounds, move and assemble furniture and setup guest rooms to prepare the hotel for customers, undertake repairs, and clean rooms, floor hallways, and The Deck following renovations.

Under the second consent award issued September 21, the Board declared hotel management breached the Labour Code when they assigned certain front desk duties to impermissible workers and in greater portion than would have been assigned before the strike; when the hotel used new managers to illegally backfill for senior managers so they could perform bargaining unit work; and continued to use third parties to perform routine maintenance tasks.

In a new development, the Board ordered a Special Investigating Officer to randomly inspect the hotel and investigate the work being performed there. The Board ordered the employer to cease and desist from using impermissible replacement workers and contractors to perform union work at the hotel, or to assign a greater proportion of struck work to managers than before the strike, and ordered the hotel to provide the Union with advance notice of any contractor operating in rooms available for rental, and to disclose which tasks are to be performed and an explanation of why it is needed.

In BC, it is illegal for employers to hire replacement workers during a strike.

Workers at the property have been on strike for over two years. They struck after the employer terminated 143 long-term workers – mostly women – during the pandemic and demanded drastic concessions from remaining workers. Strikers have picketed the hotel daily since May 3, 2021

Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport is operated by PHI Hotel Group and majority owned by Sukhminder Rai.  Mr. Rai and 10 of his affiliated companies are currently under investigation for allegations of fraud and misappropriation of $16 million of public funds. His partners in three Alberta hotels have filed a lawsuit against Mr. Rai; those hotels were put into receivership last month.

 

Media contact: Sharan Pawa, 604-710-1693, [email protected]