Hotel workers across Quebec on strike

Thousands of hotel workers across Quebec walked off the job on Thursday for 24 hours, including in Montreal.

They are turning up the pressure on their employers as negotiations appear to have stalled.

2,600 employees at 23 hotels in the province are involved in the strike action.

Demands from the union workers include a 36 per cent wage increase over four years, eliminating the use of employment agencies, reducing workloads, that employers increase their contribution to the group insurance plan, and that employees can decide how to divide tips among themselves.

The walkout, organized by the Confédération des syndicats nationaux-affiliated union Fédération du commerce (FC-CSN), follows 11 rounds of bargaining and also involves workers at affected hotels in Quebec City and Sherbrooke areas.

“There are employees that have a full time status that work their 40 hours and that they have to make use of the food banks in order to bring food at the table in their houses,” said Fernando Almaraz, the union president for Radisson hotel workers.

“What is important at this present moment is the salaries and the monetary aspect of our collective agreements.”

The pay increase is aimed at making up for the loss of purchasing power due to inflation.

“It’s getting worse because of the inflation, you know, every year the inflation goes up, so my salary is not enough anymore,” said Roberto Sangabriel, an employee at the Radisson hotel.

“Even I don’t have a kids, it’s very difficult for me and my wife.”

The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel in downtown Montreal was prepared for the strike telling CityNews that they have plans in place to ensure that hotel activities continue as normally as possible.

“Our management staff is skilled and trained to manage this type of situation. We are endeavouring to minimize any possible disruption to our guests and are hoping to resume normal operations as quickly as possible. We hope to resolve this by signing as soon as possible a collective agreement that is fair and reasonable for all,” wrote Andree-Ann Groleau, the public relations director for eastern Canada.

“The rooms may not be cleaned, but we’re here for a short stay. We leave tomorrow, so it probably won’t be much of an impact,” says Sharon Dail, a tourist who’s staying at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel in downtown Montreal.

“But we did have to run around this morning looking for breakfast.”

Dail says the communication between the hotel and customers regarding the strike wasn’t “very good.”

“We checked in last night and nobody said anything to us about it, and that would have been a good heads up.”

In a statement, the Greater Montreal Hotel Association tells CityNews that they “deplore the lack of dialogue on the part of the union” and that the union “is not willing to negotiate to find common ground.” Adding that salaries have kept pace with inflation for the past eight years, which has helped protect the purchasing power of industry employees.

The CSN says it represents some 3,500 members in about 30 hotels, but not all of them are at a point where strike action has been called.

At 12:30 p.m., a rally was held at Place des Festivals downtown, with speeches and a press conference from representatives of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN).

Negotiations have been ongoing since April.

On Aug. 1, more than 400 employees from two Montreal hotels, the Gouverneur Place Dupuis and the DoubleTree on Jeanne-Mance Street, held a 36-hour strike.

And a few days before that, on July 28, nearly 1,000 workers at the Queen Elizabeth, Marriott Château Champlain and Bonaventure hotels in Montreal went on a surprise 24-hour strike. 

The CSN previously said that more than 90 per cent of them voted in favour of a 120-hour strike mandate “to be exercised at the appropriate time.”

-With files from La Presse Canadienne