Chris · September 12, 2007
Tom Sandborn of Vancouver’s “The Tyee” posted a characteristically pro-worker story today outlining some events that transpired at the Hyatt Regency on Tuesday.
UNITE Local 40’s recent suggestion that they were “moving on to bigger things” on Tuesday in an effort to further “publicize employee working conditions” actually meant calling out the hotel’s new general manager in front of hotel guests:
“A rowdy, energetic crowd of over a hundred unionized hotel workers streamed up the stairs into the luxury lobby of the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver Tuesday afternoon, chanting slogans, demanding an immediate meeting with the hotel’s new general manager Steve McNally and shouting, “Shame! Shame!” when told he was not available. Bemused tourists looked on as the workers, members of Unite Here, marched across soft, deep carpets and past the gleaming wood of the hotel’s front desk to the manager’s office.”
Tom’s account was no doubt an honest assessment, but I still have to wonder where these “bemused” hotel guests will stay the next time they are in Vancouver. It won’t likely be at the Hyatt.
The Hyatt Regency continues to capture the most publicity during contract negotiations while the other three members of the “Big Four"--the Westin Bayshore, the Renaissance Vancouver and the Four Seasons seem to have been able to keep a lower profile. The trouble with hotels banding together to negotiate collective agreements is that the entire group will be judged by the actions and philosophy of the weakest link.
The Big Four actually used to be the Big Seven (called the Greater Vancouver Hotel Employers Association, or GVHEA) when the Delta Vancouver Airport, the Downtown Holiday Inn and the former Delta Pacific Resort in Richmond were members of the same hotel bargaining unit. The Delta Pacific Resort was re-branded, then sold to Sandman Hotels and recently closed for renovations. Under the leadership of G.M. and RVP Philip Barnes, the Delta Vancouver Airport pulled out of the GVHEA to gain the ability to negotiate on their own terms, and the Holiday Inn followed suit.
Seems like that was a pretty good idea.
Linkage
Still More Strike Talk [Vacant Ready]
Hospitality Workers Flash Anger [The Tyee]
0 comments | Permalink | Canada • Vancouver
