Union representing striking hospitality workers calls for boycott of Air Canada
Posted December 8, 2023 10:45 pm.
Air Canada passengers may have noticed a protest at the airline’s gates at Vancouver International Airport Thursday.
The protesters are members of Unite Here Local 40 who have been on strike from their jobs at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel for the last five months, but their target at this demonstration was Air Canada.
The union is demanding a public boycott of what they are calling the “scab” airline for its continuing use of the Sheraton for flight crews and passengers, even though it is behind picket lines.
Unite Here Local 40 wants the airline to stop doing business with the Sheraton, as well as Hilton, and Marriott Vancouver Airport hotels, which are all owned by the same company, until the labour dispute is over.
“It is unacceptable that Air Canada is sending their distressed passengers across our picket line,” said Felisha Perry, a striking banquet server from the Sheraton Vancouver Airport.
“We have been on strike since June fighting for living wages so we can take care of ourselves and our families in Metro Vancouver. The airline is disrespecting hospitality workers as well as their own guests by this disgraceful behavior.”
Five airlines — WestJet, Porter Airlines, UPS, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines — have already stopped using the hotels in solidarity with the striking workers, the union said in a news release.
The BC Federation of Labour has also declared a boycott of the hotels until the Sheraton workers settle their strike.
