Workers at downtown Vancouver hotel hold one-day strike

Workers at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Vancouver walked off the job Tuesday.

The one-day strike consisted of room attendants, front desk agents, and other hotel workers calling on their employer to raise wages.

Wanna Naulmuenwai, a room attendant who has worked at the hotel for 16 years, said she makes around $27 per hour.

“I can’t cut back on my rent, but I have to cut back on my groceries and other expenses,” she said. “If rents go up, I might be homeless.”

Michelle Travis, a spokesperson with UNITE HERE Local 40, the union representing the hotel workers, said hundreds of employees are facing the same issue.

“They’re living paycheque to paycheque,” she said.

Travis said the workers’ collective agreement expired in 2022, and that the union has been waiting to meet with the employer since February. She said the union believes it takes $40 an hour to live in Metro Vancouver.

“While the Hyatt charges guests extraordinary room rates, sometimes over $1,200 a night, the hotel workers are being squeezed by insanely unaffordable housing, skyrocketing costs of groceries and other basic necessities,” she said.

In a statement to CTV News, Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt's head of labor relations for the Americas, said a meeting with UNITE HERE Local 40 was scheduled at the employer’s request last week, prior to the union’s decision to issue a strike notice.

D’Angelo said the company was disappointed the union chose to strike, “while Hyatt remains willing to negotiate.”

“We have presented a fair CBA inclusive of strong wages, free family health care and a pension for employees and remain committed to bargaining in good faith," his statement continued. "At this time, UNITE HERE Local 40 has not presented a counter to the hotel’s offer.”

Travis called the employer’s response revisionist, and said the union sent a proposal to the company in April about bargaining, which was ignored.