Hundreds of Vancouver hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 40, are currently in contract negotiations. They marched through downtown vancouver on Friday, August 10, 2007 and rallied in front of the Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside Hotel on West Hastings Street as they called for a Better Contract NOW! Click here for Videos Click here for Photos Aug. 10, 2007, Vancouver - Over 400 Vancouver hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 40, British Columbia's Hospitality union, along with labour, political and community supporters, marched through downtown today calling for a middle class standard of living and safe working conditions. Their fight to ensure that hotel jobs are good middle class jobs has become even more important with Vancouver's tourism industry becoming the city's leading industry as the 2010 Olympic Winter Games approach. More than 2,000 hotel workers from the Westin Bayshore, the Renaissance Vancouver, the Hyatt Regency and the Four Seasons are currently in contract talks and are fighting to bring their wages up to middle class levels as they negotiate for workplace safety improvements, better pensions and health benefits, and more respect and dignity on the job. The workers’ contract fight is part of the Hotel Workers RISING! campaign that has resulted in better contracts for UNITE HERE hotel workers in many North American cities. After marching through downtown Vancouver, in front of the Renaissance on West Hastings and around the Hyatt and Four Seasons, the hotel workers rallied on the grounds of the Vancouver Art Gallery next to the 2010 Olympic countdown clock, where they listened and cheered as hotel housekeepers spoke publicly about their working conditions and their serious concerns about increased workloads and how too many of them are suffering pain and injuries on the job. Beth Marshall, a server at the Hyatt Regency said, “In the 21 years that I have been working at the hotel my wage has only gone up $4 an hour. Yet rent costs, gas prices and food have gone up much more than that. Twenty years ago my rent was one quarter of my monthly wages, now the cost of my rent is more than half of my monthly wages. That is why we are out marching today, we want to make sure that we can keep up with the cost of living.” Uttra Chand, a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency said, "When I started working at the Hyatt 31 years ago I was making $2.25 an hour. After 31 years I don't even make $16 an hour. I'm a single mother who is raising two kids and I don't have any pension I can live on for retirement. When I go home at the end of the day I am in so much pain I can't enjoy time with my kids. I told my manager, we don't like to be out here but we have to be - we need better wages and better pensions because I want to retire happy." The housekeepers and UNITE HERE Local 40 believe that the increased pain is a result of increased workloads that demand as many as 32 beds being changed a day, including changing up to three sheets and nine pillows per bed, heavier mattresses, cumbersome duvets and numerous amenities now being included in every hotel room. Bringing greetings and support from 100,000 of their union brothers and sisters working in hotels across North America, UNITE UNITE HERE International President John Wilhelm told the cheering workers who rallied at the Art Gallery, "It used to be that hotel workers just worked for local hotel companies, but today you work for global companies, and that means no longer can hotel workers in one city afford to be by ourselves. When you work for a global company, we have to join hands throughout the United States and Canada and throughout the world and we have to say we all work for the same companies so we're all going to support one another to get a fair shake." Local 40 President Jim Pearson thanked the hotel workers who came out to fight for better jobs, and acknowledged the support of community groups, political and labour leaders who joined with UNITE HERE Local 40 in this historic march through the streets of downtown Vancouver. After the rally, a group of UNITE HERE Local 40 members working at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown in Burnaby, the Delta Vancouver Aiport Hotel and the Richmond Hotel in Richmond, gathered as a delegation and walked back to the Hyatt Regency where they presented a petition to hotel management, signed by their co-workers, showing their support for their union brothers and sisters who are currently in bargaining for a new contract. Negotiations for a new collective agreement resume this week. | 
