Organizing to Get Results
Ongoing Demands of Workers in Hospitality Sector and Support Workers in BC Work Camps
- Stephanie Fung -
Stephanie Fung is Communications Specialist with UNITE HERE Local
40. UNITE HERE Local 40 represents workers in the hospitality sector,
hotels, airports and restaurants, and cleaning and food service workers
in some BC resource industry work camps.
The pandemic has devastated the hotel industry and I think that's
made a huge impact on these workers for sure, including both their
mental health, and health and safety conditions on the job.
These workers work on the front lines. In the work camps we have
janitors and servers and people in housekeeping who clean high touch
point surfaces in the hotels and in the camps. The impact has really
been compounding.
 Workers'
mental health is severely impacted by job security concerns. Hotel
workers were laid off when the pandemic hit so they have been living
with that insecurity -- whether they will have a job when the pandemic
is over, and some employers are firing groups of workers and putting
pressure on them to lower wages and get rid of
protections for their working conditions that they have won over the
years.
Those who are working are concerned about how to protect themselves, unsure about whether their employers will be
transparent and will communicate if there are any infections at the
workplace. That was a huge concern of the janitors at the LNG Canada
camp because at the start they were not being informed or getting
adequate PPE to protect themselves. They joined the union last summer
and have just completed a first contract. What was lacking at the
beginning was PPE -- gloves, face masks, goggles -- there were not
enough or they were not adequate. There were other concerns like the
workload, having to work long hours, not enough breaks. When you're
carrying so many supplies and have to rush to get the work done, that
increases the risk of getting infected. The lack of equipment and the
unmanageable workload put the workers at risk. They organized in the
community and on social media to support their demands and were
successful. Besides the workers who live in towns near the camp,
workers fly into the camp from farther away -- like Alberta and
northern BC. So, besides their safety at work they have to travel on
planes and take a bus with others to the camp, where the company was
not initially ensuring social distancing, making sure the buses were
sanitized, and so on.
 In Vancouver, the management of Hilton Metrotown Hotel locked out the workers
there on April 15 after a
one-day strike over the firing of dozens of workers. Pacific Gateway
Hotel and the Sheraton Hotel near the airport are being used for
quarantine under contract with the federal government. All the workers
at Pacific Gateway -- many of them there for decades --
were replaced by workers brought in by the Red Cross. Employers are
using the pandemic as a cover to get rid of long-term workers and
reduce wages and working conditions to the minimum. It's incredibly
illogical. The pandemic is killing people and hotels like Hilton
Metrotown want to eliminate the workers who clean the hotel, including
the
guest rooms, at a time when we need more cleaning not less, and trained
people. This should be concerning to guests, to the public. The hotels
should keep the staff in order to protect the people who come to the
hotel. Instead they're trying to get rid of their long-term workers and
replace them with cheaper hires. The hotels should be maintaining
stringent COVID-19 protocols and making sure that there are workers who
are good at their jobs cleaning the hotels, not terminating
those workers.
In terms of the responsibility of the provincial government, BC
Labour Minister Harry Bains said last fall that the government would
not get involved, that it had to be worked out between employers and
employees. Workers are still continuing to talk to their MLAs and have
the support of many municipal politicians, condemning the hotel's
actions and demanding that workers' jobs are protected. Putting
pressure on politicians so the law is amended to protect all workers in
these extraordinary circumstances is ongoing. The government must
intervene to protect workers' jobs -- all workers -- and stop employers
using the pandemic to fire workers.
This article was published in
April 29, 2021 - No. 36
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08361.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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