The union representing workers at Victoria’s iconic Empress Hotel has issued a strike notice for 8 a.m. this Saturday, March 7th.
According to a statement from union representatives, the hotel management’s push for concessions at the bargaining table led to members of Unifor Local 4276 to serve the strike notice.
“The Empress’ owner needs to think again if he thinks we’re going to let him degrade working conditions,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.
“You can’t have a first-class hotel without first-class service and first-class working conditions.”
The union represents nearly 500 Empress workers in the housekeeping, culinary, groundskeeping, serving, guest relations, maintenance, and engineering departments.
They are seeking modest gains in wages, benefits, and workload from the hotel management.
“We’re confident that we can sign a new collective this week if the employer stops playing games with concessions,” said James Griffin, Local 4276 President.
“Unifor members at the Empress are committed to the future of this historic hotel, but we’re not prepared to go backwards with our basic working conditions.”
The union says hospitality is one of the largest employers in Canada, with more than 1.2 million people working in the sector.
