In Action
to Defend Their Rights
BC Hospitality Workers Continue to Fight for Job Security
Hospitality workers hold 22-day demonstration at the BC Legislature, August 2020.
Hospitality
workers in BC and throughout the country have been
severely affected by the shutdowns related to the pandemic. They have
justly made the claim that government should take measures under the
emergency powers that have been invoked to force employers to grant
recall rights to laid off employees regardless of the length
of their layoff due to COVID-19 shutdowns.  After a
22-day demonstration at the BC legislature and continuous
pickets and rallies at the offices of MLAs, members of UNITE HERE
Local 40 stopped their actions on September 1 after the announcement by
Labour Minister Harry Bains that his government's recovery package
would contain "a pledge for employers to offer a right
of first refusal to existing employees when work resumes," i.e. an
option for employers to "do the right thing." On its part, the NDP
government has systematically refused to take up its social
responsibility to protect jobs through guaranteeing recall rights.
On September 17 the BC NDP government released its "recovery
package" entitled "Stronger BC for Everyone: BC's
Economic Recovery Plan." The same day, Zailda Chan, President of UNITE
HERE Local 40, issued a statement that condemned the plan for offering
nothing of substance to protect the jobs of hospitality workers who
have been
laid off or terminated due to COVID. "The takeway from this plan is
that BC's hospitality workers are on their own," she said. The
statement continues: "While we can support economic
assistance to hospitality employers, this should have been tied to a
legally enforceable guarantee that if a business accepts tax dollars in
any form you will return your laid-off staff when business improves.
"The province could easily support job security for all of
BC's laid-off hospitality workers by granting workers a legal right of
return to their pre-COVID jobs as conditions improve. We have seen
similar measures successfully implemented across the border in San
Francisco, Los Angeles County and elsewhere. It would provide some
certainty
to laid-off workers and, more importantly, would not cost the province
a dime."  On September 18 the government announced
that it had established a Tourism Task Force, a 10-member body which
will focus on "reigniting BC's tourism sector and enhancing its
long-term competitiveness" and provided a $50 million budget with, as
yet, no terms of reference. Nine of the ten members are representative
of the industry
from across the province and the tenth, yet to be named, will be "a
representative from the Labour sector."
Chan's
statement concludes: "We look forward to learning more about the
Tourism Task Force and how the province plans to reconnect laid-off
workers to their jobs so that employers do not replace them with new
lower wage workers when conditions improve." The
situation of hospitality workers who are fighting for recognition of
their right to be recalled to their jobs no matter how long they are
laid off related to the COVID-19 pandemic, is a situation that
thousands of workers are facing, particularly those in the service sector. Not only does the government not protect and
guarantee their right to recall to their jobs when businesses reopen or
expand from initial reopenings, it is openly assisting employers to
trample on unionized workers' hard-won wages and working conditions
acceptable to them. For example, many hotel workers who had been
employed on a regular full-time or part-time basis have been forced to
accept casual, on-call, precarious work at reduced wages, without fixed
schedules, benefits and any form of security. Employers are also
imposing lower wages and working conditions on workers hired to replace
laid off workers.
UNITE HERE Local 40 is continuing to fight for the rights of
its members and for the rights of all workers, organized and
unorganized, to dignity and respect, which includes the right to be recalled
to their former positions.
This article was published in
Number 64 - September 24, 2020
Article Link:
In Action
to Defend Their Rights: BC Hospitality Workers Continue to Fight for Job Security
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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