600 workers on strike at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel

The 600 employees of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal have been on strike since noon on Monday and will remain on strike until noon on Tuesday to advance negotiations for the renewal of their collective agreement.

The workers are members of the CSN-affiliated Fédération du commerce union.

The organization pointed out that this is the first walkout to take place as part of the new coordinated hotel bargaining round, which includes 30 hotels in several regions this year.

The CSN-affiliated union has a 120-hour strike mandate to be exercised at the appropriate time.

The vice-president of the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs de l’Hôtel Reine-Élizabeth-CSN, François Houle, declared that labour relations at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel had been “extremely difficult” since June 2022.

He claimed management was approaching negotiations “with numerous demands for rollbacks” on working conditions.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 15, 2024.