Longest hotel strike in B.C. history hits 1-year mark with tourism season fast approaching

Cecilia Rutter, 65, had cleaned rooms at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown hotel for over 20 years until last spring when she says her employer fired almost a hundred of her colleagues and locked the rest of them out.

One year later, Rutter walks a picket line every weekday as hotel management and UNITE HERE Local 40 continue to face off in what is now, according to the union, the longest hotel strike in British Columbia history.

According to the union, management has been running the 283-room hotel since it terminated 97 housekeepers, front desk and kitchen workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and then "locked out" the rest of its union staff on April 15, 2021.

Union spokesperson Stephanie Fung says the move was a ruse to get rid of long-term workers, many of them women of colour, and replace them with cheaper labour.

"Employers are using the pandemic as an excuse to really erode economic gains that women have made over the years," Fung told CBC in March.

In a statement released by the hotel on Wednesday, management said union claims that workers were locked out are false and that employees on strike right now can return to work at anytime.

But workers like Rutter, a single mom, who says she hoped to retire at the Hilton and have worked there for decades, worry what conditions they would be returning to.

"I loved my job because it was a good pay. I raised my son on this job," said Rutter, speaking on CBC's The Early Edition. "I'm senior now and that job is very physical, so I don't want to start over at minimum wages. I thought I would retire at Hilton Metrotown."

Employer proposes binding arbitration

Hotel management says seniority rights for a significant number of employees did expire under the collective agreement before the strike started because of how long the layoff period was during the pandemic, and when those rights expired, their employment ended based on the agreement's terms.

According to the hotel's statement, the union asked to have those employees reinstated with seniority and Hilton Vancouver Metrotown agreed to do that over six months ago.

Fung, speaking on The Early Edition on April 6, did not detail employees' current demands but said the two sides are not currently at the bargaining table and the union is working with a mediator and hoping for a resolution soon.

Hotel management says mediation dates were scheduled in March and the union pulled out two days before they were to begin and that it has offered to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration. It has asked the union to respond by April 19 to this offer.

The dispute has spilled over into politics as well. For the past year, Burnaby city council has not given business to the hotel after passing a motion to support workers in April 2021.

On Monday, Burnaby South MP and federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visited picketing workers to show solidarity for their cause. The B.C. Federation of Labour and multiple unions have also endorsed a boycott of the hotel.

For Rutter, the solution to the situation is simple: "All we want is a fair contract."