While tourists should be numerous this summer in the Quebec City region, hoteliers are facing a crying lack of staff.
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“How are we going to spend the summer? The phone keeps ringing, but I don’t have enough people to answer it. I won’t have enough people to open all the rooms. Someone somewhere has to wake up,” says Michelle Doré, owner of the Hôtel Champlain located in Old Quebec.
To attract new workers, hoteliers are scrambling, without however obtaining the expected results.
“We will fix the salary, we will find parking for this person. She wants to start right away, OK, we’ll bring someone in to train her the next day even if it’s her day off because it’s her wish. Well, she does not show up, ”laments Ms. Doré.
According to several owners of hotel establishments, streamlining immigration procedures is one possible solution.
“To bring in a foreign worker, to us, it costs between 2,500 and 5,000 dollars. Maybe we could also have a small tax credit with that, ”says Michelle Doré.
Strike at the Quebec Hilton
While several hoteliers are looking for staff, unionized workers at the Hilton de Québec have been on strike for nearly 6 months.
The two parties do not agree on the duration of the agreement and there is no negotiation date scheduled. The union members will demonstrate on March 6 to highlight the 6 months of labor dispute.
“We hope that the whole fact that the sanitary measures will change, that the restaurant will reopen, that it will help us to resolve (the conflict)”, affirms Louise Jobin, president of the Union of workers of Hilton Quebec, affiliate at the CNS.