Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotels|"Toronto Plaza Hotel Workers Continue 11-Week Strike For Better Wages & Benefits"

Souce           :   thestar.com
Category     :  Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotels
By               :   Jessica McDiarmid
Posted By   :  Hotels in Virginia Beach South Courtyard

Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotels

Striking workers at the Toronto Plaza Hotel are upping pressure on management after nearly 11 weeks on the picket lines have failed to break a labour impasse. About 40 workers at the 200-room hotel near the intersection of Highway 401 and Jane St. walked off the job on May 30 to protest cuts to wages, benefits and pensions, as well as what their union local described as “a culture of disrespect.” On Thursday, the Ontario Federation of Labour plans to hold a rally in front of the hotel on Wilson Ave. to bolster the half-dozen or so workers who have been taking shifts waving placards on the sidewalk. Mohamed Baksh, a representative for the workers’ United Steelworkers local, said employees accepted a wage freeze and cuts to their benefits and pensions in 2011 to help out the struggling business, with the understanding that those would be reinstated in spring of 2013.

“Essentially we gave them a break for two years,” Baksh said. But when negotiations for a new contract began, hotel owner Rehan Chaudary wanted to trim wages and reneged on returning benefits, said Baksh. Wage cuts would range from about $5 per hour to about $1 per hour. The hotel has paid partial costs for workers to retain life, accident and death insurance through the USW, said Baksh. Ionie Anderson worked in housekeeping for 14 years and would see her $13.44 per hour wage fall to $12.44. “All of the cutbacks, dropping the benefits, the pay,” Anderson said of her reasons for picketing. Anderson said her children are grown, which has taken some pressure off her household. But many employees are single parents trying to provide for their families, she said. Callif Smith, a single mother of three, has worked at the hotel since 2000. “I have three kids to send to school. I can’t work part-time for minimum wage,” Smith said. “We didn’t need to go on strike — just give us some benefits. I have small kids, they need benefits.”

Chaudary said the company wants to get their employees back to work and give them “a very good package.” But the recession and the ballooning number of hotels in the area hit the Toronto Plaza Hotel hard. Its rates and occupancy levels have fallen against competition from the likes of the Hilton, Marriott and Holiday Inn chains. Chaudary, who has a number of other companies, said he’s spent millions on the hotel since buying it four years ago, but it has yet to turn a financial corner. “It still doesn’t pay its way, we’re in the negative. Every month I’m putting money in to save this company. We’re struggling,” said Chaudary. “(The workers) got to realize something here. This place is dead. If we don’t have a hotel, they don’t have a job, I don’t have a job … I know it’s a kick in the butt, but you know what? It’s a kick in the butt for me, too.”

Source:thestar.com/news/gta/2013/08/13/toronto_plaza_hotel_workers_continue_11week_strike_for_better_wages_and_benefits.html