There is a palpable air of unrest among hotel workers in the Greater Vancouver area this summer. Hotels brought in record revenues nearing $1.4 billion last year, while their employees' wages stagnated.

Following weeks of contract negotiations, the Vancouver Residence Inn hotel workers' union, Unifor Local 433, issued a 72-hour strike notice and began picketing during Sunday's Pride event. The workers are demanding fair wages, lighter workloads, and improved benefits.

One picketing worker, a single mother supporting a child in university, told North Star, “We don't want to fall into modern slavery”. Another employee who has been there for over 30 years asked, “Can you survive in Vancouver on $22.00 per hour?”

The Residence Inn workers have been represented by Unifor since 1998. The most recent strike vote passed with 100% approval. Vote turnout was 85%, with many workers who were on leave or vacation and coming back to vote in person.

The Residence Inn by Mariott employs of more than 70 members of Unifor Local 433 working in housekeeping, front desk, maintenance, and beverage departments. The hotel is run by Silverbirch, a "hotel operations and asset management company" and owned by a private investment company based in Hong Kong.

Negotiations began on July 15. Unifor says that while some progress has been made on “non-monetary issues,” wages, improved workloads, benefits and vacation remain sticking points.

Another worker explained how they have been asking for some benefits for workers working there “for 10, 20, even 30 years, like an extra day of vacation, but the bosses won't budge. Currently, there is no bargaining.”

The hotel chain is making lots of money. In 2020, rooms rates were $200 to 300 per night. Four years later, the same room costs $600 to $700, while workers' wages have barely increased. The hotel finds many ways to turn a profit, such as by charging customers if they check out late or shorten their stay or by renting the same room twice. "When we say at the bargaining table they are making big money, they don't deny it. They can't," a worker told The North Star.

The large 245-room Vancouver Holiday Inn & Suites, only a block from the Residence Inn, is also set to go on strike, with nearly 2,000 workers with UNITE HERE Local 40 demanding wage increases to keep up with the city's high cost of living.

Hyatt Regency hotel workers also went on strike for a day on the July 16, expressing that their wages are not keeping up with inflation and the city's runaway rent prices.

Meanwhile, workers at the Sheraton Hotel location near Vancouver International Airport have now been on strike for over a year, picketing daily since June 14 of last year.

These labour disputes in Vancouver's hotel sector take the form of separate, disconnected struggles between several unions and their workers' respective employers. Meanwhile in Quebec, workers at various hotels engage in coordinated collective bargaining centralized through the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN).

At the beginning of this year, Richmond city councillors voted 6-3 in favour of boycotting the Marriott, Hilton, and Sheraton hotels.

The BC Labour Relations Board ruled striking Sheraton workers are allowed to picket all three hotel locations.