This is the third walkout during co-ordinated negotiations on behalf of 30 hotels in four regions of the province.
Nearly 1,000 workers at three Montreal hotels — the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, the Marriott Château Champlain and the Bonaventure — walked out Sunday in a surprise 24-hour strike in a bid to make headway at the negotiating table.
This is the third walkout during co-ordinated negotiations on behalf of the 30 hotels represented by the Conférence des syndicats nationaux in four regions of the province.
The strike began at 11 a.m. at the Queen Elizabeth and noon at the Marriott Château Champlain and the Bonaventure.
“After several negotiating sessions, it is deplorable that there have been so few advances,” said Michel Valiquette, responsible for the hotel sector and treasurer of the CSN-affiliated Fédération du commerce, in a communiqué. “With today’s strike, the workers are saying things have to move at the tables.”
Arianne Carmel-Pelosse, vice-president of the CSN’s Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain, said: “Hotel workers do essential and demanding work while hotels are extremely busy during the holiday period. They are demanding hoteliers respect them and they are determined to make themselves heard.”
Among demands in the coordinated negotiation, which represents more than 3,500 workers in 30 hotel unions in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec, are for salary increases of 36 per cent over four years “to make up for the loss in buying power linked to inflation,” an increase in employer contributions to group insurance, training for future generations, eliminating the use of placement agencies and leaving it to employees to decide among themselves how tips are divided.