Reinstate Montreal Union President Aida Gonçalves!
- Pierre Soublière -
Aida Gonçalves front and centre at a
hotel workers' rally
The Quebec Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) reported that
on July 23, the president of the Marriott Château Champlain hotel
workers' union in Montreal was fired by her employer the week before.
Aida Gonçalves had worked for the hotel for more than 30 years.
The union president was suspended, then fired, after workers carried
out a "visibility campaign" in the hotel lobby on July 8 to demand the
renewal of their collective agreement. Now the employer is refusing to
negotiate with the union if its president is at the table.
This firing has taken place while hotel workers everywhere are in
action in defence of their working conditions and their livelihood as
hotel owners, while complaining of staff shortages, are refusing to
respect the workers' right to recall and seniority as hotels reopen
following the pandemic measures. On July 22, hotel workers in Quebec
City demonstrated in front of the Delta and Hilton hotels, demanding a
collective agreement which respects their right of recall and seniority
retroactively to March 13, 2020. They are also asking for wage
increases of 2.1 to four per cent for each year of a four-year
collective agreement.
On July 22, Quebec hotel workers held a symbolic picket in front of
the Hôtel PUR to express their solidarity with the 97 workers who
were fired by the Hilton Metrotown Hotel in British Columbia, owned by
DSDL Canada Investments, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hôtel PUR workers have also organized a letter-writing campaign
directed to the hotel owners demanding that DSDL stop mistreating hotel
workers across Canada and are providing financial aid for the fired and
locked-out workers of Hilton Metrotown. The BC Federation of Labour has
called for a boycott of the Hilton
Metrotown, calling on all unionized customers to not do business with
the hotel. A boycott was also instituted by the Alberta Federation of
Labour of the Varscona, Mettera and Matrix hotels in Edmonton, also
owned by DSDL.
Within this context, the firing of Aida Gonçalves must be
condemned far and wide as a further attack on hotel workers across
Canada and on the entire working class. She must be reinstated as a
necessary step in obtaining a satisfactory collective agreement which
treats workers with respect. As in other sectors such as health, staff
shortages,
where they exist, can only be resolved by improving working and living
conditions, not by making them worse. 
Hotel workers protest in
Marriott Château Champlain lobby on July 8, 2021
This article was published in
August 13, 2021 - No. 69
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08692.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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