BC Hospitality Workers Relief Fund
UPDATE (Dec. 15, 2021)
Dear Union siblings and friends,
This holiday season, locked-out Hilton Metrotown workers and striking Pacific Gateway workers have been on the picket line for 8 and 7 months, respectively. The holidays will be tough this year for many of the workers and their families. They are in the middle of difficult, but inspiring, fights against employers trying to use the pandemic to erode good jobs. We ask you to consider making a donation to the hospitality workers’ strike fund to support workers on these picket lines.
Hilton Vancouver Metrotown workers were locked out on April 15, 2021, after the hotel took advantage of the pandemic to terminate 97 long-term hotel housekeepers, servers, kitchen staff and others. The owner wants to eliminate daily room sanitizing and demands major economic concessions. Workers have been on the picket line for over 8 months.
Pacific Gateway Hotel workers went on strike after the hotel terminated 143 long-term workers, mostly women, during the pandemic. The firings came after the federal government took over the hotel as quarantine site and brought in contractors. The Globe and Mail recently cited “wretched” conditions experienced by travellers detained at the hotel when returning from Africa. Workers have been on strike since May 3, 2021, to fight back against mass firings, wage rollbacks of living wage jobs to minimum wage, and the threat to eliminate workers’ union health and pension plans. 
How we’ll use the funds: Funds may be used for workers’ hardship emergencies, grocery vouchers, or to supplement strike pay. UNITE HERE Local 40 will work with the locked out and striking workers to determine needs on the ground.
One day longer, one day stronger.
In solidarity,
Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40
Robert Demand, Executive Director of UNITE HERE Local 40
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ABOUT UNITE HERE LOCAL 40
From Prince George to Powell River, Vancouver to Victoria, we’re building a fighting union for hospitality workers in BC to win respect and improve our jobs. UNITE HERE Local 40 represents workers throughout BC who work in hotels, food service and airports. Local 40 is part of the UNITE HERE International Union, representing 300,000 workers in the hotel, food service, airport and gaming industries throughout Canada and the U.S.
UNITE HERE Local 40 has a diverse membership that includes workers from many immigrant and First Nations communities. The majority of UNITE HERE members are women.
Through organizing, UNITE HERE members have made hotel housekeeping jobs and thousands of other traditionally low wage jobs into good, family-supporting, middle class jobs.
Visit us at https://www.uniteherelocal40.org/