Workers at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport hotel in Richmond are preparing to go on strike this weekend unless Larco Hospitality, owned by one of the richest families in Canada, acquiesces to their bargaining demand. These workers—ranging from housekeepers to banquet staff, and including the hotel's Starbucks workers—are currently represented by UNITE HERE Local 40.
That bargaining demand is very simple: workers want "wage parity with comparable high-end hotels" in the Greater Vancouver area. This would mean a pay increase of $5 CAD/hr over what Sheraton Vancouver Airport employees are currently paid. The reasons for it, likewise, are very simple: without that increase workers cannot afford to live in Richmond or in some cases the Vancouver metropolitan area at all.
Says Shaelyn Arnould (who works at the hotel Starbucks and has been at the hotel for 5 years) through UNITE HERE Local 50:
I’m sharing my two-bedroom apartment with two roommates so I can afford my rent, but it still takes up most of my pay. I’m only 24 years old, yet I feel hopeless. I can’t save for my future, or even afford a car, and I work full-time. I want to strike because there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for me. With what I make, I won’t be able to live in a nice home or raise a family, and that’s not right.