MONTREAL — Some 600 workers at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), have been locked out here since Nov. 20. This is the largest hotel in Quebec, with 950 rooms.
Since the lockout, strikers have picketed in shifts six days a week, Saturday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Strikers told the Militant March 6 that bosses locked them out the day after they voted down a proposed contract by 90%. The union and company agreed to a 21% wage increase over four years, but reached an impasse over key issues of the workload for housekeepers and the bosses’ increased use of nonunion agency workers.
The union is demanding the number of rooms to be cleaned each shift be capped at 11, while the bosses want 13 during peak season and 14 the rest of the year. Workers say that since the hotel’s multimillion-dollar renovation in 2017, management has increased the workload, causing fatigue and injuries.
“Since the renovations, shower curtains have been replaced with glass doors, and marble tables have been added,” Edwin, a housekeeper with 20 years’ seniority, told the Militant. “But they want us to clean the same number of rooms per shift.” She said she didn’t want to use her last name for fear of company retaliation.
There is a staff shortage because management doesn’t replace workers who quit. The number of cleaners has fallen from 200 to 120. Striking workers from Hotel Pur in Quebec City made a two-and-a-half-hour trip to join locked-out workers and other supporters Feb. 20, helping swell the number on the picket line into the hundreds.
“If the Queen Elizabeth bosses think they can break the union by dragging out the lockout they are badly mistaken,” Dominique Daigneault, president of the Montreal CSN Central Council, told the pickets. “The only way to end the conflict is to put a contract on the table that improves the wages and working conditions of the workers.”
Join the picket line! Send donations to CSN, 1601 Ave. De Lorimier, Montreal QC, H2K 4M5, earmarked for the strike.