Marathon Vancouver airport hotel strike ends after 1,411 days

The Canadian Press

· Posted: Mar 17, 2025 12:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

The national representing workers astatine the Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport Hotel says unit person ratified a caller corporate agreement, ending a astir four-year-long strike.

Unite Here Local 40 says the 1,411-day onslaught was the longest successful Canadian past and the statement provides a pathway backmost to enactment for 143 workers terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic, erstwhile the edifice was called Pacific Gateway.

The national says successful a connection the woody besides provides occupation information protections and higher wages.

Local president Zailda Chan says successful the connection that 70 per cent of the hotel's workers were fto spell during the pandemic, erstwhile the edifice was utilized arsenic a quarantine site.

But alternatively of giving up, Chan says co-workers walked disconnected the job, demanding their colleagues beryllium reinstated.

The onslaught surpasses the Vale Inco excavation onslaught successful Ontario that lasted astir 2 years and ended successful July 2010.

Quarantine hotel

In May 2021, the national says the 400-room edifice successful Richmond, B.C., was "fully booked" by the national authorities arsenic a quarantine tract for planetary travellers.

Unite Here says in a associated connection with Radisson Blu that the corporate statement gives terminated workers the close to instrumentality based connected seniority, with the callback play extending for 36 months, and workers volition present gain the highest wages successful the Vancouver airport and Richmond edifice market.

The connection says the declaration includes improved aesculapian benefits, with little eligibility requirements, arsenic good arsenic industry-leading cleaning standards.

The national included a connection from Jillian Louie, who says she had worked astatine the edifice since 1991 until she was fto spell during the pandemic, and she had been wanting to instrumentality to her "second family" ever since.