We were dismayed by the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown’s move to lock out its employees from UNITE HERE Local 40. Most of the affected staff are women and racialized workers.
It’s completely unacceptable that the hotel is accepting COVID wage subsidies from the government while firing workers and refusing to bring back the ones that were laid off.
Nearby at the Pacific Gateway Hotel, which continues to be used by the federal government as a quarantine site, workers allege that men’s jobs were more likely to be protected than women’s.
Effective immediately, PIPSC will boycott the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown and the Pacific Gateway Hotel. Along with our labour movement colleagues, we will take our business somewhere that respects workers. We urge PIPSC members and the public to do the same, in solidarity with the affected hotel workers.
If you are in the area, be sure to not cross the picket lines of striking workers. This boycott will send a clear message to hotel management: lockouts and discriminatory layoffs will not be tolerated. Management needs to listen to the reasonable demands of workers who simply want to make a living.
Thank you to the PIPSC BC/Yukon Region who passed a resolution supporting the boycott at their Regional Council meeting.