Richmond, BC. March 8. – Hotel workers at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel in Richmond, 7551 Westminster Hwy rallied outside the Hotel holding their placards, union flags, and banners to demand a fair contract. Many of the hotel workers are women, many are racialized workers and they are all members of Unite Here local 40.
The Sheraton Airport hotel workers are in current negotiation to increase their wages that have been described by Nadia, a Unite Here organizer, as among the lowest in Metro Vancouver. “The Sheraton Hotel was open during the pandemic and workers put at risk their health to serve travellers and to make huge profits for the hotel. Today, the Sheraton Hotel owner denies decent wages to their workers.”
Their signs say it all: Fair Contract Now! No Pandemic Profiteering! I Stand With Women!
Workers from other hotels, members of community groups, migrants’ groups and other unions were there too to help out and show solidarity. Migrante BC and Migrante Canada joined the workers at the rally, alongside other supporters like the Vancouver & District Labour Council, Hospital Employees Union, Retail Wholesale Union, Richmond Poverty Response Committee, and others to show solidarity for the hotel workers fighting for a fair contract
Chris Sorio, the Secretary General of Migrante Canada and of Migrante BC, was happy to see Gemma de la Torre, Unite Here local 40 and a Filipina worker of Hilton Vancouver Metrotown in Burnaby. She was busy behind a small table greeting people, handing out samosas, coffee and doughnuts, taking care of the sign-in sheet, and giving out signs for those joining the picket. Migrante met her during the long strike at the Hilton and she reminded Chris, “I am one of those faces in the T-shirt of Unequal Women!” Gemma knows far too well what her union brothers and sisters in the Sheraton Airport Hotel are going through because she too was laid off as a housekeeper, and went on strike for what is considered the longest ever hotel worker job action.
International Working Women’s Day was best spent at the rally with working women of the Sheraton Airport Hotel who are struggling to keep up with inflation and who are leading the fight to demand family-supporting wages and respect on the job!
The rally ended with the workers and supporters clapping and chanting, “We’ll be back!” A militant International Working Women’s Day from Migrante Canada to the fighting hotel workers of Sheraton Airport Hotel.