First public briefing for UNITE HERE 75

Paul Clifford

When UNITE HERE Local 75 broke tradition by holding its first public briefing, they filled the council chambers at Toronto City Hall.

"There were about 400 hotel workers, 40-50 different representatives of community organizations, including local councillors, and a dozen or so general managers invited to observe," Paul Clifford, president of the union told CLN in an interview.  He added that the union had invited management not only to observe, but to have an opportunity to give a PowerPoint presentation.

The union's reasons for holding the briefing were twofold. The first was to "demystify the economic myths around the hotel industry"and "counter the general public impression that everything is bad everywhere." The numbers presented at the meeting are from the Conference Board of Canada report regarding the profitability of the hotel industry. (See "Toronto hotel unions want end to recession measures" for more details.)

Clifford said the second reason is that in the last decade, thanks to combined efforts of labour, industry and politicians, there has been growing recognition of the economic importance of the hospitality industry, and that hotel jobs can, should be, and are becoming good jobs that can support families and are a major part of Toronto's big city economy.

"A number of the members have a strong commitment to continuing to make improvements in the standard of living and working conditions in hotels," Clifford said.

"As we are bargaining, we are looking forward and continuing to improve. We knew intimately that in many ways hotel employers (operators and owners) have been able to maintain profitability, largely at the expense of workers and customers.

"The trends we are seeing, I think are shortsighted, including misnamed, so-called green programs, soup in a bag, frozen meals that are trucked in and warmed up en masse, closing of room service, limited restaurant outlets, reducing hours and just-in-time scheduling."

Clifford added that they are proud as a union to have come close to the living wage level, which the Centre for Policy Alternatives pegs at $17-$17.50 per hour for the Greater Toronto Area. "We are not at that level in all properties, but on average over the last decade, we have increased and improved wage and benefit levels by over 40 per cent," Clifford said.

He spoke to the proliferation of green choice programs, where guests are offered a $5 to $10 food and beverage voucher if they forgo housekeeping services. "For housekeepers, it's a double whammy, making jobs precarious, because when fewer rooms are cleaned, the lowest seniority people get left off.  When the rooms are cleaned, they are much dirtier and require more effort, adding to the workload of people doing the work.

"It's also increasing injuries in housekeeping-the repetitive strain over the course of a lifetime making thousands of beds or cleaning thousands of bathrooms," Clifford said.

By June 2, the union will have received comments from its members, and will review all of its options.  Thirty hotels are in a position to undertake strike authority votes.

"We will review all of our options at a leadership meeting June 3, and announce next steps after that," Clifford said.

Canadian Lodging News welcomes comments by contacting the editor at cisherwood@can-lodgingnews.com or commenting on the web version of this article at www.can-lodgingnews.com.