Unite Here Local 40 Rally Friday September 11
On Friday September 11th Unite Here Local 40 held a rally to support workers of the Coast Plaza Hotel who are in negotiations for a new contract. The sticking point in the negotiations is the issue of the workers’ “transfer rights” to move their contract to a new hotel in Coal Harbour from the West End Coast Plaza Hotel which will close.
The hotel workers represent a rich diversity of Canadian society and are mostly women. There was a vast array of different languages and accents spoken at this rally. The negotiations are important for these workers as 150 of them could lose their jobs if they don’t get transfer rights. The jobs at the hotel represent “living wage” jobs that are mostly held by women.
The rally had an amazing vibe and good energy. The organizers of the rally did a wonderful job of leading chants and empowering everyone. The best chant was: ” Whose got the power? We got the power. What kind of power? Union power.” This got stuck in my head over the whole weekend (my wife can attest to that). I shot a lot of video needs to be edited and will post so you can get this chant stuck in your head.
Here are more images of the event. Congrats to Unite Here Local 40 on organizing such an amazing rally and standing up and giving voice to all these workers.