Jeff Shantz, Toronto
Working conditions at Toronto's elite Metropolitan Hotel have been so brutal for so long that many among its predominantly immigrant workforce refer to it as a "five star sweatshop".
However, when Met workers turned to their union, Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees (HERE) local 75, for help, they were met with inaction and patronising dismissal. So the Met workers organised the Metropolitan Hotel Workers Committee in 2003. Within a few months of meetings and discussions, the committee had grown to include 56 of approximately 200 Met workers.
Of the 200 workers at the Met, more than two-thirds are women, most of Philippines, Chinese, South Asian and West Indian backgrounds.
The miserable conditions faced by workers across the hotel industry are well documented. Long hours of work are matched with low pay and unsafe working conditions. At the Metropolitan Hotel, housekeeping workers have been made sick from the regular use of chemicals that are not even properly labelled. One estimate suggests that one in 10 workers at the Met presently suffers from some type of workplace injury.
One worker was forced to leave the Met after 14 years when she developed cancer. By law the workplace is required to have a joint health and safety committee, including local 75 representation, but the union has had no contact with the workers, despite repeated requests.
Employees are forced to work as many as 16 hours without a break. One worker was disciplined for taking company property because, after a full day with no dinner break, she ate a cookie destined to be thrown out.
Workers are often punished for speaking languages other than English. Incredibly, local 75 has cited the language barrier as a reason it has not resolved grievances.
Before the committee was formed, workers who spoke up or tried to defend workmates were targeted by management, including with false accusations of theft.
Instead of welcoming the committee, however, the HERE local has joined management in attacking it. Recently, the union representative and the Met's manager jointly called a meeting with shop stewards to coordinate an attack on the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, which has supported the committee's efforts. Workers were pressured in the presence of management to sign a statement demanding that OCAP stay away from the hotel.
When one of the committee members, who had been an active militant within the local, was elected as a HERE shop steward, the local's president intervened to remove him from his position. When another committee member was fired, the union failed to call the witness who was essential to his arbitration case.
Faced with this inaction, and obstruction, from the local 75 leadership, the Met workers finally decided to take things into their own hands, organising rallies and pickets at the workplace. Local 75 leaders have boycotted the actions.
Despite this, the committee has already made some important gains. Grievances have been satisfactorily resolved and committee members have done skill-sharing with each other to teach themselves how to take grievances forward.
As the committee has grown and enjoyed some successes it has been approached by workers from other hotels about starting similar committees in other workplaces. These are important steps in building a vital network among rank-and-file activists geared towards autonomy and self-activity.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, August 25, 2004.
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