Vancouver Hotel Workers Demand Protection of Their Jobs
- Joseph Theriault -
On June 3 hundreds of hospitality
workers and their supporters took to Burrard Street near the Hyatt
Regency Hotel in Vancouver on foot and in cars, trucks, bicycles, motor
cycles and scooters with signs and flags and banners to press the
government and their employers for better job security following mass
layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zailda Chan, Unite Here Local 40 president, said
the demonstrations were "a powerful message to our employers and our
government that tourism workers are not disposable."
 Most of the
workers in B.C.'s hospitality industry were laid off in mid-March after
the pandemic shuttered the tourism industry. Unite Here Local 40 said
in the span of two weeks, 90 per cent of their 60,000 members lost
their jobs.
While many of the workers were able to get
employment insurance or the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB),
their recall rights -- the right of a laid-off employee to be called
back to work by their employer -- could soon expire.
This situation is especially painful given the
militant strike action the union took in 2019, which resulted in raises
of up to 25 per cent, new standards for workplace safety, protection
against sexual harassment and improved job security.
Premier John Horgan addressed their concerns at a
press conference the day of the rally. A CBC news report quotes him as
saying "We're calling on employers to do the right thing and make sure
they're keeping their workforce intact to the greatest extent possible,
we expect that to happen, if we need to take steps using the
legislature to protect workers, we'll do that. But our concern now is
how do we get businesses up and running."
He did not commit to ensuring the right to recall
for the hotel workers. Instead he is asking that they rely on the
employers "doing the right thing."
Michelle Travis of Unite Here Local 40 says
there's concern that laid-off employees will be replaced with new hires
who will be paid less.
"We figured it's going to be summer 2021 before
the industry really recovers and we want to make sure that workers who
have spent years doing these jobs and are professionals at their work
have a shot of getting their job back and be first in line to go back."
Travis told Global News.
Zailda Chan said "We know that the tourism
industry will take years to recover and what we're asking for is a
24-month guarantee that people will have their jobs. That will give
hospitality workers enough time to go back to work."
Support the just demands of hospitality workers to
be recalled to their former positions without loss of seniority rights
or former pay levels!
This article was published in
Number 44 - June 25, 2020
Article Link:
Vancouver Hotel Workers Demand Protection of Their Jobs - Joseph Theriault
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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