After a 12-day strike action, workers at The Arbutus Club won a new contract, securing a 16% raise over 3 years and a $0.55/hr increase retroactive to Jan 1. Before the strike, over 95% of the staff were paid less than the living wage, estimated at $27/h in Vancouver, one of Canada's most expensive cities. The living wage, calculated by region, represents the income required to cover basic needs.
On April 29, workers at the elite country club went on strike to fight for wages that keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living after their employer refused to bargain in good faith for months. Unionized under Unifor Local 3000, over 200 workers (servers, lifeguards, cooks, maintenance, and laundry attendants) voted 94% in favour of going on strike if the employer kept ignoring them. During The North Star's visit of the picket line just before the agreement, workers said they wanted to win not only to support their families, but also to inspire other workers.
Club members pay $65,000 to join, plus $1,000 to $2,000 a month and other fees to use the facilities. Knowing how much the club takes in, the workers were demanding wage increases of 5% a year to keep up with inflation. “Of course, the major thing to take away is just the dollar value of how much people are making,” told Vincent Choi, who has been working in the kitchen for two and a half years, to The North Star.
“Some of the other employees who've been working here 10, 15, even 20 plus years that rely on having two jobs, making a little bit over minimum wage… they can't support their families with that.”
Yet, the exclusive country club with elite patrons—such as Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini—avoided negotiations with the union's bargaining committee until the very end, ultimately forced by the strike to negotiate.
Another cook picketing outside the club, who wished to remain anonymous, detailed how the club's representatives were blocking negotiations by taking excessively long breaks during meetings. “When [the club's negotiators are] back in the conference room, they play their cell phone games, not talking to the union rep, not proposing anything at all,” he told The North Star. “They're stalling until 11 o'clock [at night] and then they start offering them a very unfair deal.”
Scabs have also been a major concern for the unionized workers. “We've heard members of the club telling us that they saw managers training other people, and we're trying to get to the bottom of that,” said Michael Windeyer, vice president of Local 3000.
Choi also noted the club training workers for union-protected positions before the strike action. “I work in the kitchen myself, but we know leading up to it that people were being shown how to operate the dishwasher,” he said. “They're being shown how to use the laundry equipment, which, again, is another protected job.”
“This is my first union job working here, and seeing the support of the union, seeing all the services that are being offered by the union, I get it. I totally get it,” Choi remarked. “This will cause ripples. I'm completely behind unions trying to fight for a better living for everybody because it only ever lifts up the expectation of standards.”
“The numbers don't add up, and that's all it's about, right? Bringing to light the fact that employers are oftentimes taking advantage of working-class people… People should realize, I should not be working overtime unpaid. I should not be working in conditions for very little money that I can't even support my family on. It's not sustainable. A lot of it goes into part of the whole cost of living crisis we're facing right now. As the cost of goods goes up, you should assume that if the services cost more and the goods cost more, then there should be more compensation.”
Despite the main objective of the strike having been better compensation for their labour, one worker denounced how some of the club members have reacted to the strike. “We do have members that are flipping us off, giving us side looks and telling us to get out of the way, which is ridiculous because we understand that [the club members] pay this much for the club, and we provide them with good service and good food. We don't deserve the treatment that they give to us because we always try to be on top of our job to satisfy the ridiculous demands they have, and we don't complain one bit.”