Video: Mable Elmore and Ellen Woodsworth join workers' demonstration against the Hyatt

A labour dispute at some of the city's most-luxurious hotels has dragged on for over four months now.

Since June 2010, roughly 1,400 employees of the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver, Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside, and Westin Bayshore have been negotiating with their employers for a new labour contract.

According to Michelle Travis, an organizer for UNITE HERE Local 40, one of the issues central to negotiations is excessive work loads.

On Thursday, November 18, Mable Elmore, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Kensington, and Ellen Woodsworth, COPE councillor for the City of Vancouver, joined a demonstration by housekeeping staff outside the Hyatt. UNITE HERE Local 40 subsequently released the following video.

Comments

2 Comments

unions exist for a reason.

Nov 23, 2010 at 1:51pm

Do you want change. It takes sacrifice. It means hard work and fighting for what is morally fair. Or you can simply sit and watch your rights slowly get eroded.

Max

Nov 25, 2010 at 6:35am

I agree with you "unions exist", however, as a member of a large union, many of these institutions are bureaucratic and disconnected from their membership. My union works only with well paid public sector workers and puts no effort into organizing the people who really need the help, like these lower waged private sector service industry workers.

Besides this, my union's politics consist solely of this: let's get the NDP back in power. But the NDP, with some exceptions (e.g. Clark's significant raise in minimum wage), has generally not shown itself to be fighters for workers. When the leader of the NDP goes and walks the picket line, they'll get my vote. I see my union as part of the status quo.