BACKGROUNDIn the past decade, there has been a radical concentration of hotel ownership. Globalized hotel chains now control most functions-including collective bargaining-from worldwide head offices. Hotel workers are no longer bargaining with local management.
The hotel industry is prospering, yet the only way in which hotel workers can hope to achieve better wages and benefits is to work together. In 2006, hotel contracts will expire in over 400 hotels across North America. Twenty-three contracts expired in Toronto in January 2006.
Hotel workers are part of the growing number of Canadians working in low-paying service sector jobs. Raising standards of both union and non-union workers is key to ensuring the health of our cities, their economies and communities.
Find out more by visiting the following websites:
'Decade in Decline',
United Way of Greater Toronto, www.unitedwaytoronto.com
'Poverty by Postal Code' www.unitedwaytoronto.com/Poverty-by-Postal-Code/
Hotel workers should not have to work two jobs, sacrifice their health and have their children grow up in poverty. This is the reality today for many who work in back-of-the-house hotel positions, where upwards to 90 per cent of workers are immigrants. Click here for more background information backgrounder
Please click here for Background details "Task Force set to review conditions in Hotel Industry."