Hundreds of Montreal hotel workers take to the streets in surprise strike

Hotel workers demonstrated in Montreal on July 29, 2024 in the third day of strikes by unionized workers.

Nearly 1,000 workers at the Queen Elizabeth, Marriott Château Champlain and Bonaventure hotels in Montreal went on a surprise 24-hour strike on Sunday.

Several other similar walkouts are expected across the province.

On Monday morning, hundreds of hotel workers gathered in front of the Marriott Château Champlain downtown.

"These hotels are making astronomical profits, which must be converted into wage increases so that you can get your fair share," CSN general secretary Nathalie Arguin told the workers, who were loudly demonstrating with bells, whistles and trumpets.

After a few speeches, the hotel employees, escorted by several police vehicles, moved to the Queen Elizabeth and Bonaventure hotels to demonstrate before returning to work in the afternoon.

The strike began at 11 a.m. on Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth and at 12 p.m. at the Marriott Château Champlain and Bonaventure hotels.

Monday's strike is the third walkout in the 11th round of coordinated bargaining for the CSN hotel industry. There are 30 hotels representing 3,500 employees participating in the negotiations.

Around 15 of the 30 hotels have voted in favour of a 120-hour strike mandate, which they can call at any time.

"The aim is also to keep a bank of 24 hours of strike time, so that eventually there will be a joint walkout by all the hotels that have obtained the right to strike. This should happen somewhere in early August," explained Michel Valiquette, head of the hotel sector and treasurer of the CSN's Fédération du commerce.

The workers are demanding a 36 per cent pay rise over four years.

"We're asking for a wage catch-up for the first year, and remember that there have been 8 per cent increases over the past four years, so that's a long way from the consumer price index. Only for the year 2022, the consumer price index (CPI) was higher than that," said Michel Valiquette, adding that "hoteliers have largely taken advantage of the rise in inflation to raise room rates much higher than the CPI."

The union members are also asking for three weeks' holiday in the first year of service, to attract new workers.

They also want employers to contribute to the group insurance plan and are asking for better training supervision for fitire employees.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 29, 2024.