Hotel employers appear to have achieved labour peace for the next four years.
Hotel workers voted by an overwhelming 85% majority on Friday to ratify a four-year collective agreement with the Greater Vancouver Hotel Employers Association.
The agreement covers approximately 1,600 workers at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, Westin Bayshore, Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside and the Four Seasons Hotel.
The agreement comes after months of demonstrations, street actions and a boycott launched earlier this fall against the Hyatt Recency Vancouver.
Terms of the agreement include improved pensions and benefits, housekeeping workload and wage increases.
Employers told Business in Vancouver in November they were offering workers “one of the most generous offers in the hospitality industry.” (See “Hoteliers encourage union to take ‘generous’ offer” – BIV Business Today, November 24.)
Employees achieved significant improvements in health benefits, including the goal of expanding workers’ year-round access to medical coverage, according to the hotel employees’ union Unite Here Local 40.
“Now more of our co-workers will keep their extended health care and dental benefits during slower parts of the year,” said Nadeen Abenes, who was part of the union bargaining committee.
“I am also happy we won housekeeping workload relief, which means housekeepers will no longer have to skip their breaks to finish rooms.”
The workers’ last contract expired June 30.