Members of the Unite Here Local 40 union picketed the Hyatt Regency Vancouver hotel today in what organizers said would be a one-day strike.
Escalation is possible but there is no timeline set for additional strike action, Unite Here Local 40 spokeswoman Michelle Travis told BIV late this morning.
She said workers at the Hyatt Regency, Pinnacle Harbourfront and Westin Bayshore hotels have been without a contract since mid-2022.
Workers at those hotels last year voted 65 per cent to support job action, although that job action had largely been avoided until now. The only action had been hour-long strikes and other smaller job actions, Travis said.
The workers' ability to hold one-day strikes was authorized by that strike vote, she said.
Hotel management had been in negotiation with the union up until February, when talks broke off, Travis said.
"We are apart on wages and issues around medical coverage," she said. "They want workers to pay more out of pocket, and there are issues around contributions to pensions and making sure [hotel management] puts more money into workers pensions, given how many have worked there for so many years."
Harris and Co. partner Israel Chafetz, who represents the employers through the Greater Vancouver Hotel Employers' Association, told BIV today that a meeting is set to take place tomorrow. That meeting, he stressed, was scheduled a week ago, which was long before the employers knew of any potential strike action.
"The meeting is not in response to them going on strike," he said.
Unite Here Local 40 workers at those three downtown Vancouver hotels went on strike for 28 days in 2019 before ratifying an agreement that provided raises up to 25 per cent over four years, as well as other perks. That contract was retroactive to 2018, Travis said
That 28-day strike started in September 2019 and caused loud picket lines that prompted management to file a successful lawsuit in BC Supreme Court that ended with an order for picketing workers not to use amplified sound or create noise that was louder than 75 decibels when at a distance of at least 6.1 meters.
The union also represents workers who have been on strike at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel for more than a year.
