On October
28, members of Unite Here! Local 40 organized a picket action as part
of a continent-wide "Come Back Stronger" day of action. The
“Come Back Stronger” actions were organized by the
union to defend jobs and working conditions in the hospitality industry
that are under attack by the conglomerate owners of hotels, who are
using the excuse of the pandemic to fire workers and to attempt to
reduce wages and eliminate hard won working conditions.
Undaunted by the
cold rainy day, the Hilton Metrotown workers erected tents at the main
entrance of the hotel, and then marched back and forth while the drums
beat time. The main slogan for this action was "Housekeeping every
day!"; "Hotel rooms need to be cleaned every day!"
A
union organizer explained to Workers'
Forum that hotel management in hotels all over are trying
to cut down on the amount of cleaning they do in each room, and thus
cut down on the number of employees: for example the clerk at the desk
of a hotel may be required to ask an incoming guest if they want to be
disturbed by having someone come in to clean. Having had it put that
way, many a guest agrees not to have the cleaning done. This is not
only a matter of saving jobs — and many of those workers have
been there for 22 years, he said, but it is also a matter of
maintaining proper standards of cleanliness and public safety.
A statement by the union on Facebook, in announcing the
October 28 action, said
"During the pandemic,
DSDL [the
offshore corporation that owns the Hilton Metrotown hotel
in Burnaby] locked out Hilton Metrotown workers
in April after terminating 97 workers this spring. Many of those fired
were women who had worked at the hotel for years. The BC Federation of
Labour issued a boycott of the hotel, and we held a sit-in protest this
past August. What Hilton Metrotown is doing to its workers isn't a
single incident. Hotels are using the pandemic to get rid of their
long-term workforce, many of them women." The union statement
continues, "But the industry is making a comeback and workers need
their jobs back. Bosses may use the pandemic to try to cut services
& jobs but the union will come back stronger! It's time to come
back stronger and say NO more unequal women in the hotel industry!"
This article was published in
November 1, 2021 -
No. 102
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO081023.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
