'You've Failed Us:' Staff From A Canadian Quarantine Hotel Have A Message For Trudeau
Employees are going on strike for the second time during the pandemic.
On Monday, May 3, workers from a Canadian quarantine hotel in Vancouver went on strike for the second time since the beginning of the current travel orders.
UNITE HERE Local 40 — the union group representing The Pacific Gateway Hotel's staff — issued a press release on Monday morning outlining the reasoning behind the strike.
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According to the union's press release, the hotel has fired over 100 of its workers, with nearly two-thirds of those people being women. The women who are leading the strike say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "promised a 'feminist recovery' but won't protect the women at the hotel he controls."
"Prime Minister, I was fired this past weekend after 27 years of service. Is this what you call a feminist recovery? I have 3 girls - one in Grade 5, one in high school, and another in college. Pacific Gateway is outright attacking women and our federal government is doing nothing to stop it," said Pardeep Thandi in the release, a room attendant from the hotel. "You said you would prioritize women in Canada's economic recovery — but you've failed us. That's why I'm on the picket line today. We're not going to give up on everything we worked so hard for."
For nearly a year now the Pacific Gateway has been a designated quarantine hotel, which is a place for travellers to carry out the current government-mandated quarantine period. Since its designation, the Red Cross was brought in from the federal government and has apparently taken up many of the jobs the hotel's workers were already performing.
In an email statement to Narcity, Kevin Woolliams, Labours Relations Consultant, wrote that the current agreement between the hotel and the union expired in 2018, and that the employer has "offered bargaining dates to the union, only to have them rejected." "Negotiations have been stalled since February, and we are disappointed that the union has chosen to now strike instead of negotiating further."