Nearly 1,000 workers at the Queen Elizabeth, Marriott Chateau Champlain and Bonaventure hotels in Montreal went on a surprise 24-hour strike Sunday. But Monday afternoon, two of the three properties reportedly locked out their employees.
On Monday morning, hundreds of hotel workers gathered outside the Marriott Chateau Champlain in downtown.
“These hotels are making huge profits that must be transformed into salary increases so that you get your fair share!” said CSN Secretary General Nathalie Arguin to the workers who were demonstrating noisily with bells, whistles and trumpets.
After some speeches, the hotel employees, escorted by several police vehicles, moved to the Queen Elizabeth and the Bonaventure to demonstrate.
The employees were due to return to work in the afternoon, but in the middle of the day, the CSN announced that the Marriott Château Champlain and Bonaventure hotels “are locking out their employees until 6 a.m. tomorrow.”
The strike began at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and at 12 p.m. at the other two establishments.
This strike is the third walkout by the 11e coordinated round of negotiations of the CSN hotel industry. 30 hotels representing 3,500 employees are participating in the negotiations.
About fifteen of these 30 hotels have voted for a 120-hour strike mandate that they can call at any time.
“The goal is also to maintain a bank of 24 hours of strike time, so that eventually, there is a joint walkout of all the hotels that have obtained the right to strike. This should happen somewhere around the beginning of August,” explained Michel Valiquette, head of the hotel sector and treasurer of the CSN Commerce Federation.
The workers are demanding a 36% wage increase over four years.
“We are asking for a salary catch-up for the first year and I remind you that there has been an 8% increase over the last four years, so it is far from the consumer price index. Only that for the year 2022, the consumer price index (CPI) was higher than that,” said Michel Valiquette, adding that “hoteliers have taken full advantage of the rise in inflation prices to increase room rates much more than the CPI.”
Union members are also asking for three weeks of vacation from the first year of service, to attract new workers.
They also want employers to contribute to the group insurance plan and are requesting better supervision of training for the next generation.
Strike breakers
The head of the hotel sector and treasurer of the CSN Commerce Federation maintains that the Queen Elizabeth Hotel illegally employed strikebreakers during last week’s day of walkouts.
“We will not accept that hoteliers use strike breakers to replace workers who are on strike” and “we will be heard quickly by the Administrative Labor Tribunal and we will continue to accumulate evidence,” said Michel Valiquette on Monday morning.
As of Monday afternoon, the Queen Elizabeth Hotel had not yet responded to the accusations.