FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2020
Vancouver, BC — On Wednesday, hundreds of laid-off hospitality workers in a caravan of cars honking horns and chanting on foot participated in a demonstration urging provincially and federally elected leaders to ensure employers rehire, not replace, laid-off workers as the economy recovers. With workers facing long-term layoffs in the sector, they risk losing their jobs due to the pandemic. Hotel housekeepers, servers, cooks and other members of UNITE HERE Local 40 led the caravan through the heart of downtown Vancouver.
Over 90% of B.C.’s hospitality workers were laid-off in March due to COVID-19. With travel restrictions and a cancelled convention and cruise season, it could be summer 2021 or later before the hospitality industry recovers. Workers laid-off from hotels like Holiday Inn Downtown, Blue Horizon and high-end hotels like The Wedgewood and Rosewood Hotel Georgia could be terminated if they are not called back to work this summer. Workers across the province face the same predicament, while non-union workers could find themselves permanently replaced even sooner.
CERB will expire in July and too few hospitality employers are participating in the government’s wage subsidy program. As businesses begin to reopen, unemployed workers are calling on their political leaders to make sure they are not left behind.
“We need Premier Horgan and Prime Minister Trudeau to help us get our jobs back and make sure employers don’t use the pandemic to replace us or force us to start over from scratch,” said Darcy Dawson, a laid-off server at the restaurant in Holiday Inn & Suites Downtown Vancouver. “This is my first job where I’ve had better job security and medical and dental benefits. Will all that go to the wayside because of COVID-19?” asked Dawson.
“Holiday Inn Downtown, Blue Horizon Hotel, Wedgewood, Rosewood Hotel Georgia and other unionized workers from hotels across the province could lose their jobs if they are not called back to work by the end of September. Worse, non-union laid off workers could be replaced tomorrow. We know the industry will eventually recover. And when it does, laid-off workers should be first in line to get their jobs back,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40.
According to a recent poll of British Columbians commissioned by the union, 92% of those surveyed were in broad political support of requiring companies to rehire their workers before replacing them. The same poll found a similarly high level of support for such a requirement where employers receive government relief.
###
Media Contacts: Stephanie Fung, 604-928-7356,[email protected], or Michelle Travis, 778-960-9785, [email protected]
UNITE HERE Local 40 is the hospitality workers’ union and represents members in the hotel, food service and airport industries throughout British Columbia. Learn more at UniteHereLocal40.org.
Breaking: Pan Pacific Hotel Forcing Workers to Sign Away Their Rights?
BREAKING NEWS:
The Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver is giving its workers a deadline to sign away their current working conditions to become casual, on-call staff and their rights to claim severance. The hotel cites the pandemic as an excuse to force workers to sign away their labour rights.
According to a document obtained by UNITE HERE Local 40, workers at the non-union Pan Pacific have been given a deadline of today, Tuesday, July 14. A copy of the agreement can be found here: https://www.uniteherelocal40.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Pan-Pacific-Agreement.pdf
Zailda Chan, UNITE HERE Local 40 president, blasted the Pan Pacific Hotel for forcing workers to sign away their rights and said the Province shares the blame: “This is yet another egregious example of a hotel employer taking advantage of the pandemic to strip away workers’ rights. Is this what the Province and Tourism Minister Lisa Beare have in mind when they say they expect employers to work with their laid-off employees? The Province must take responsibility for protecting workers laid-off due to Covid. Otherwise, thousands more workers will be stripped of their rights and fired.”
Last month, Premier Horgan called on employers to do the right thing and keep their workforce intact. The Premier said that if the government needs to take steps in the legislature to protect workers, they will do so. Tourism Minister Lisa Beare continues to remain silent when pressed on what she will do to support tourism workers.
UNITE HERE Local 40 is the hospitality workers’ union and represents members in the hotel, food service and airport industries throughout British Columbia. Learn more at UniteHereLocal40.org.
Contact: Michelle Travis, [email protected], 778-960-9785
Local 40 Sodexo Proposal: 3 Year Agreement
Wage Increases
-Immediate $4-5 increase (equal to KMP contract)
-$1 increase every year thereafter
Overtime/Shifts
-10 hour guarantee for those who want it
-Overtime- 1.5x after 8 hours, 1.5x on Saturdays 2x on Sundays
Pension
-Local 40 Civeo Pension: $3.85/hour
Benefits
-Local 40 Benefits- 100% Paid by company
-Note: Local 40 benefits are far superior to Sodexo/Steelworker proposal
Housekeeping Workload
-# Rooms: 8hr-20 rooms 10hr-24 rooms
-Each check out counts for 2 rooms
-Each linen change counts for 1.5 room
-Rooms Clean every day
Travel- Flights paid for 100% by the company
Compensation for Locals
-50 cent/Km travel pay
-Child Care Subsidy
-Options for locals to stay in camp
Note: most of what is in this proposal, has already been won by Local 40 members in Kitimat. A $40 billion contract has more than enough money to meet our demands.
Statement by Zailda Chan, UNITE HERE Local 40 President, regarding B.C.’s extension of temporary COVID-19 layoff provisions
“We are incredibly disappointed by the Government’s decision today to extend temporary layoffs and delay severance to help the business community without any protections for workers. The government had to put 50,000 hotel workers out of work, but with no legal rights to get their jobs back. Hotel workers are already being permanently terminated as a result of this pandemic. A wave of terminations may come in September. This decision falls far short of what laid-off workers need to stay connected to their jobs. The B.C. government needs to act and protect workers – not just businesses.”
Press Release: Laid-off Hospitality Demonstrate, Ask Government – Where is Our Right to Return to Work?
For Immediate Release
June 25, 2020
Contact: Stephanie Fung, 604-928-7356, [email protected], or Michelle Travis, 778-960-9785, [email protected]
VANCOUVER – As the province launched Phase 3 of its restart plan, laid-off hospitality workers demonstrated today outside the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. Hotel workers are urgently calling on the provincial government to protect those on the verge of losing their jobs due to the pandemic. The Government had to put 50,000 hotel workers out of work, but with no legal right to get their jobs back. While the B.C. legislature debates temporary layoff rules this week, thousands of the province’s laid-off hotel workers could face permanent job loss if employers use the pandemic as an excuse to replace them.
Rosewood Hotel Georgia workers protested alongside other area hotel workers who stand to lose the right to keep their jobs unless the government takes action. With reports that the hotel industry may not recover until 2021 or 2022, hotel workers throughout the province want the government to guarantee they will have the right to return to work as the industry recovers.
Unlike the business-backed proposal to extend temporary layoff and delay severance, UNITE HERE Local 40 is urging the province to legislate protection for workers laid-off due to the pandemic so that they cannot be terminated. The current rules around temporary layoff do not prevent workers from being fired due to the pandemic. As the hard-hit hospitality sector begins the long road to recovery, workers spoke at a press conference outside the hotel about what they stand to lose.
“Our contribution to B.C.’s hotel industry is significant. I hope the province does not let workers with years of experience go to the wayside. The provincial government should make sure that hotel workers who have built this industry are guaranteed the right to get our jobs back as the industry recovers,” said James Milling, a doorman who has worked at Rosewood Hotel Georgia for nine years.
UNITE HERE Local 40 is the hospitality workers’ union and represents members in the hotel, food service and airport industries throughout British Columbia. Learn more at UniteHereLocal40.org.
Press Release: Laid-off Workers Hold Caravan, Call for Government Action on Layoff Protection
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2020
Vancouver, BC — On Wednesday, hundreds of laid-off hospitality workers in a caravan of cars honking horns and chanting on foot participated in a demonstration urging provincially and federally elected leaders to ensure employers rehire, not replace, laid-off workers as the economy recovers. With workers facing long-term layoffs in the sector, they risk losing their jobs due to the pandemic. Hotel housekeepers, servers, cooks and other members of UNITE HERE Local 40 led the caravan through the heart of downtown Vancouver.
Over 90% of B.C.’s hospitality workers were laid-off in March due to COVID-19. With travel restrictions and a cancelled convention and cruise season, it could be summer 2021 or later before the hospitality industry recovers. Workers laid-off from hotels like Holiday Inn Downtown, Blue Horizon and high-end hotels like The Wedgewood and Rosewood Hotel Georgia could be terminated if they are not called back to work this summer. Workers across the province face the same predicament, while non-union workers could find themselves permanently replaced even sooner.
CERB will expire in July and too few hospitality employers are participating in the government’s wage subsidy program. As businesses begin to reopen, unemployed workers are calling on their political leaders to make sure they are not left behind.
“We need Premier Horgan and Prime Minister Trudeau to help us get our jobs back and make sure employers don’t use the pandemic to replace us or force us to start over from scratch,” said Darcy Dawson, a laid-off server at the restaurant in Holiday Inn & Suites Downtown Vancouver. “This is my first job where I’ve had better job security and medical and dental benefits. Will all that go to the wayside because of COVID-19?” asked Dawson.
“Holiday Inn Downtown, Blue Horizon Hotel, Wedgewood, Rosewood Hotel Georgia and other unionized workers from hotels across the province could lose their jobs if they are not called back to work by the end of September. Worse, non-union laid off workers could be replaced tomorrow. We know the industry will eventually recover. And when it does, laid-off workers should be first in line to get their jobs back,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40.
According to a recent poll of British Columbians commissioned by the union, 92% of those surveyed were in broad political support of requiring companies to rehire their workers before replacing them. The same poll found a similarly high level of support for such a requirement where employers receive government relief.
###
Media Contacts: Stephanie Fung, 604-928-7356,[email protected], or Michelle Travis, 778-960-9785, [email protected]
UNITE HERE Local 40 is the hospitality workers’ union and represents members in the hotel, food service and airport industries throughout British Columbia. Learn more at UniteHereLocal40.org.