Richmond hotel workers seek solution

The Mixer, December, 2007

In a small, multi-room area behind the front desk at the Richmond Hotel, workers are busy answering phones, making reservations, helping hotel guests and doing their part to make sure this end of business runs smoothly at the hotel.

The cramped maze of short hallways and small rooms, secured by a locked door, is the workplace for a number of long term members of Local 40 who have recently decided they can no longer tolerate the poor air quality in their close-knit working space. From being too cold to being too hot, depending on the time of the year, the workers have been unable to successfully control the room temperature in their workspace and have been subjected to strange breezes with distracting smells that seem to come from other areas of the hotel.

Taking their concerns to their Shop Chair, Sister Donna Bullough, who is also a member of the union’s Executive Board, the workers decided to seek advice from their Union Rep, Jean Poulton to help solve their air quality problem. When they met, they discussed the issue at hand, and made a plan. They decided to form a delegation that would tell management about their issue and ask for a solution to their annoying and troublesome problem.

“We decided that we would send a delegation to management to ask for help to solve our problem,” said Sister Bullough. “We contacted our Union Rep Jean Poulton for support and advice, and then met with management and the head of the maintenance department. Our concerns were acknowledged and before we knew it, the area was being assessed and our concerns are now being dealt with.”

Deb, a long time union member who has worked the switchboard at the hotel for many years, is happy the long standing air quality issue is being dealt with. “It’s been difficult for us working in here,” she said. “We love our jobs, and we get along with our managers and the members working in the maintenance department, so it was kind of hard approaching them about this issue - I think we all took it personally and didn’t want anyone to think we were ‘complaining’, but it really has become difficult for us and we do need a better environment to work in.”

After their meetings with management and maintenance, an assessment of the area was done and a quote has been formulated for the work that needs to be completed that will improve the air quality in their work area.

The hotel workers are looking forward to the planned changes being implemented, and even though there will probably be some disruption as renovations take place, they feel their delegation about their issue was worthwhile.

“It’s when we can communicate and work together that we have a better chance of getting the improvements we need in our workplace,” said Sister Bullough, who works in the Thirsty Turtle Restaurant & Pub at the hotel. “And the union helped show us how to do this.”

The Mixer will feature a full report on this issue when it is fully resolved.