Professional golfers competing in the Presidents Cup in Montreal are likely to encounter not only autograph-seeking fans but also union members waving signs and chanting slogans outside their hotel doors.
Employees at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, which is the host hotel for the event, launched a seven-day strike on Wednesday morning to pressure the employer to move negotiations forward.
“When we want to use pressure tactics, when the arguments at the negotiating table are no longer enough to make the employer listen to reason, the ultimate means that remains is a strike,” declared Michel Valiquette, spokesperson for the hotel sector of the CSN Commerce Federation.
An avoidable conflict
The CSN has between 700 and 800 members at this establishment and these members, who had used up the 120 hours of strike they had set for themselves, have given themselves a mandate that could go as far as an unlimited general strike. Although their goal is to seek the same gains as their colleagues at the Hilton Hotel in Laval, who voted in favour of an agreement earlier this week, the strike was triggered by the employees’ inability to obtain a demonstration of flexibility from the employer, according to Mr. Valiquette.
“The Queen Elizabeth management had the opportunity to avoid this conflict since we were in negotiations last Friday. The union’s proposal was that it would guarantee that there would be no strike during the Presidents Cup weekend on condition that the employer withdraw its numerous demands for a setback.”
“We weren’t even talking about moving forward in terms of negotiations, but simply that the employer withdraw its requests for a step back, which he didn’t agree to. He didn’t even respond to us,” the union representative lamented.
Some thirty hotels in the Montreal, Quebec, Estrie and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions are participating in coordinated negotiations. Union members at three of them, those at the Bonaventure and Double Tree hotels at the Complexe Desjardins in Montreal and the PUR hotel in Quebec City, are on an unlimited general strike, but union members at all the hotels have strike mandates, either to go as far as an unlimited general strike or banks of strike hours or days to use sporadically.
Domino effect sought
The CSN Commerce Federation hopes that the agreement reached at the Hilton in Laval can serve as a model agreement for other establishments. Its members obtained salary increases of 21% over four years, including 10% in the first year, as well as gains in terms of tip protection, group insurance, training and vacations.
Union members are now hoping that a domino effect will spread to all establishments, explains Michel Valiquette.
“The Hilton Hotel union in Laval has paved the way for the 29 other unions participating in the coordinated round of negotiations. So now, hoteliers know the size of the settlement, they know where we want to land and our people are determined to obtain the same conditions as at the Hilton Hotel in Laval.”