Unite Here! Local 40
#1812-1177 Hastings St. W V6E 2K3 Vancouver, BC, Canada

The federal government has repeatedly extended the contact to use the Pacific Gateway Hotel, which has been described as an involuntary seizure with no clear end date. The latest extension pushes the quarantine site’s location at the hotel through at least March 31, 2021.

CALL for VOLUNTEERS! Phone bank with UNITE HERE Local 40! *Email [email protected] if you can join us and for more details! On Thursday, Dec. 10th, from 10 am to 12 pm, UNITE HERE Local 40 is hosting a virtual phone bank to call hundreds of customers of the Pan Pacific, Hyatt, Westin, and Pinnacle hotels. We are encouraging customers to call their hotels and demand that they bring back their workers. We need your help. Thousands of hotel workers have been laid off a...cross BC due to the pandemic. Now, major hotels in downtown Vancouver are refusing to protect hotel workers and are proposing to permanently change job classifications to reduce the workforce and cut costs. Hotel workers are hurting. Many have families to support and bills to pay. We need to get the word out to hotel customers what the Pan Pacific, Hyatt, Westin, and Pinnacle are doing to their workers and urge clients to demand that hotel workers be called back to work! Will you join us? Email [email protected] by this coming Wednesday if you can phone bank!

"Sectoral support must come with conditions that keep workers tied to their jobs instead of doling out cash and hoping for the best, while workers prepare for the worst." - Ian Robb, UNITE HERE Canada Director #cdnpoli #canlab #BuildBackTourismBetter https://www.thestar.com//workers-should-be-front-and-centr Chrystia Freeland Marc Garneau Jagmeet Singh Mélanie Joly

Why is the federal government causing workers to lose their jobs?? Last week the Pacific Gateway Hotel announced to workers that the federal takeover of the hotel as a quarantine site would be extended through March 31, 2021. The takeover extends beyond workers’ right to be recalled to their jobs. Workers, most of whom have served their hotel for decades, are urging the federal government to grant them 24 months to return to their jobs and bridge them through the pandemic. #bcpoli #bclab Patty Hajdu Chrystia Freeland Mélanie Joly Jagmeet Singh Erin O'Toole #cdnpoli #canlab

Essential workers should not be working without access to paid sick days and health benefits during normal times and especially during a pandemic. Read the full report by Canadian Capital Stewardship Network (CCSN) here. #WorkersFirst #cdnpoli #canlab

Hotel industry wants bailouts like interest-free loans while the staff they laid off go into debt using their high-interest credit cards to survive - Justin Trudeau, put workers first! #NotinThisTogether #WorkersFirst #cdnpoli #canlab

LNG janitors are calling out what they describe as unsafe working conditions with long hours, low pay and a lack of transparency in communicating about the COVID-19 outbreak that broke out at the project Nov. 19. What’s even scarier is we didn’t even know about the outbreak until it came out on the news, Dawit Birru, janitor, says. We’re supposed to be the frontline workers. The least you could do is tell us so we’re extra prepared, so that we know while we’re walking into the situation. They did not tell us at all.

We are proud to have done our part to take back our country including knocking on 3 million doors in the states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida and win for @joebiden and @kamalaharris Congratulations to us all. #VotersDecided to #TakeBack2020.

Canada can "build back better." We urge the federal government to put workers first in any industry bailout. #cdnpoli #canlab https://actionnetwork.org/letters/workers-first

The failure of the federal government to make sure hotel workers aren’t hurt by its takeover of the Pacific Gateway is astounding. - Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40

If CEWS was created to keep workers attached to their jobs, why won't Govt make sure employers use it to cover laid-off staff? #BuildBackTourismBetter #cdnpoli #canlab Chrystia Freeland Mélanie Joly Mary Ng https://simpleflying.com/air-canada-government-wage-subsidy/

PRESS RELEASE: UNITE HERE Local 40 Responds to Extension of Federal Government Takeover of Pacific Gateway Hotel through March 2021. The failure of the federal government to make sure hotel workers aren’t hurt by its takeover of the Pacific Gateway is astounding. Workers at the hotel predominantly women and immigrant workers have been kept in the dark for months about the duration of the federal contract and why feds are using a contractor to perform hotel workers’ duties. Now the hotel is suggesting workers could permanently lose their jobs because of the extended federal contract." - Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40 https://www.uniteherelocal40.org//press-release-unite-her/

Liberal Party of Canada | Parti libéral du Canada Justin Trudeau Chrystia Freeland, put workers first in any industry bailout! #BuildBackTourismBetter

"My job is my identity. I'm not just a server there. It's a passion of mine... The federal government keeps on saying 'we're in this together' but we now need them to put those words into play." - Treva Martell, laid-off worker at Pacific Gateway Hotel. https://www.cbc.ca//15810729-hotel-workers-laid-off-start-

There are 150 long term workers there, some of who’ve been there for decades. There are great jobs in there, with veteran workers; the junior ones are 15 to 20 years’ service. The majority are women, women of colour. That group are really struggling with not having a good, stable, long term job. It’s imminent that people are going to lose their jobs and it’s wrong. - Robert Demand, Executive Director, UNITE HERE Local 40

On Nov. 25, UNITE HERE Local 40 held a virtual press conference and called on the federal government to prevent 150 workers from losing their jobs at the Pacific Gateway Hotel, currently being used as a quarantine site. Hotel workers displaced by the takeover said they could be permanently terminated as early as January unless the government acts. Full press release here: https://www.uniteherelocal40.org//federal-government-take/

Hotel workers struggle in pandemic, wondering when or if they will be called back. COVID-19 cost Randy Yadao his job in mid-March this year. A month later, the pandemic sent his wife, Febe, home from her job, too. The Ottawa couple was especially vulnerable because both worked in the city’s hotel industry. After 13 years, Randy, 47, was temporarily laid off from his position in the Ottawa Marriott’s laundry room. Febe similarly lost her work as a housekeeper at the Carleton Suite Hotel.

A reminder that the Local 40 hardship fund is still open to ALL hospitality workers in BC! If you are in hardship and in need of financial assistance, apply to the Local 40 hardship fund to receive a one-time payment of UP to $500. More details: https://www.uniteherelocal40.org/2020/05/hardship-fund/