Laid-off workers are urging MLA Lisa Beare to protect the jobs of 50,000 hotel workers across B.C.
UNITE HERE Local 40, B.C.’s union for hotel and hospitality workers, has launched a petition calling on Minister Beare to protect hotel workers’ jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The petition has gathered almost 550 signatures in two days.
A delegation of Maple Ridge area hotel workers delivered the petition urging Beare, B.C.’s Tourism Minister, to do more for workers laid off due to the pandemic on Friday, July 3.
Stephanie Fung, Local 40 media spokesperson, said hospitality workers want to know if they have a legal right to get their jobs back for as long as it takes for the industry to recover.
“The workers went inside the office, but Beare wasn’t there,” Fung noted. “A staff person who was there wrote down the workers’ message but the staff didn’t seem to have any knowledge, or pretended to have no knowledge, about what was going on.”
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Hospitality workers have been among the hardest hit by the economic impact of COVID-19 and will be one of the last to return to work.
UNITE HERE Local 40 said the government asked hotel workers to stay home to protect public health, but without guaranteeing they would get their jobs back.
More more information on the petition and UNITE HERE Local 40 can be found at https://www.uniteherelocal40.org.
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Email: ryan.uytdewilligen@langleyadvancetimes.com
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