The clock is ticking between Coast Hotels and UNITE HERE Local 40 as they try and hammer out a new settlement.
A rally was held in Prince George last night involving Coast Inn of the North Hotel workers after the company issued a 72-hour lockout notice at three of its locations, which also includes Nanaimo and Victoria.
Union Spokesperson, Octavian Cadabeschi states they won’t be taking this fight lying down.
“Workers are not happy with the decision management made around threatening to lock them out, our members are strong, united and are definitely not happy with it.”
Both sides are in mediation today and the union has set a midnight deadline to get a deal done or several partners will be pulling there business out of Coast hotels.
A potential lockout or strike could affect a combined 250 workers in all three communities if a new deal isn’t reached.
Higher wages continues to be the biggest beef between Coast employees and the union as the hospitality industry in BC continues to boom with record profits with none of the surplus money trickling back to the employees.
Cadabeschi says it’s about time local hotel workers get paid more than they are now.
“Management will often boast about record revenues and our members have a piece of that. The cost of living continues to go up and in fact, while hotels are making record revenues our members are actually falling further and further behind.”