Unions in certain hotels are toughening their tone, as they call on their members to have a strike mandate to advance negotiations more quickly with a view to renewing their collective agreement.
The mandate on which the members are called to decide is one of 120 hours or five days of strike, which could be broken down into hours or days, starting in July.
The plan provides that several of the unions concerned could walk out at the same time, for 24 hours, in August.
Only certain hotels may be affected. These pressure tactics are being considered by some of the unions of the Fédération du Commerce, which is affiliated with the CSN.
This federation has been carrying out “coordinated negotiations” for several years. This involves unions in 30 hotels, i.e. different employers in the regions of Montreal, Quebec, Estrie and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
Although the expiry dates of collective agreements sometimes differ — some are in July, others in August or December — the federation seeks to coordinate these negotiations to create a trend and extend the gains obtained to other hotels.
The first meeting to decide on this strike mandate will be July 2, at Reine Élizabeth, in downtown Montreal.
Another assembly is planned for July 2 at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Montreal, but the date could change again. The union meetings of the other hotels concerned will follow.
Already, starting Thursday, union members will wear a sweater in the colors of their negotiations, indicated Michel Valiquette, treasurer and representative of the tourism sector at the Fédération du commerce.
“There is no question of us stretching out this negotiation until September and October. What we want is to settle things during the summer season,” he said.
The negotiations, “it’s cordial, but it’s not moving forward quickly enough. This is why we want to put pressure on employers,” he explains.
The pace and content of negotiations “varies from one hotel to another. For some, it already exceeds ten negotiation meetings. For some, things are progressing a little better. For some, the standards are practically settled.”
But there still remains the important salary clause. These unions are demanding a 36% increase over four years, including 15% from the first year. They are also calling for improvements to vacations and an increase in employers’ contributions to group insurance.
For their part, hoteliers have already stressed that the appetite of union members seems very great. They nevertheless said they were ready to discuss, while emphasizing that working conditions in the industry are already good and that employees are well treated.
The Greater Montreal Hotel Association invites its members to a meeting on July 18, during which they will look at the inventory and occupancy of the Greater Montreal hotel park and the comparison between the situations in Montreal, Quebec and Canada. They will also discuss forecasts of economic fluctuations and their impact on the industry.