Queen Elizabeth Hotel cancels cleaning as workers walk off job

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Guests at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal are not exactly getting the luxury service the hotel is known for these days.

There is no housekeeping service — except for clean towels. The café in the lobby is closed, a sign says, and food service was limited to breakfast only, a guest told The Gazette on Thursday.

The hotel, which is also home base for the Presidents Cup this week on Île Bizard, is in the midst of a week-long strike that has hundreds of employees off the job.

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Wages are a key sticking point, with the union seeking a 21 per cent pay increase over four years, starting with a 10 per cent raise in the first year. That’s the deal workers at the Hilton in Laval reached. Employees at both hotels are represented by the CSN.

But there are other issues too, said hotel concierge François Houle, who is also a spokesperson for the union, which represents the more than 600 striking Queen Elizabeth Hotel workers.

“We’re on strike today because the employer refuses to negotiate in good faith,” Houle said. He said the mood among strikers was energetic, but that he didn’t think hotel management was listening.

Reached by phone Friday, Andrée-Ann Groleau, public relations director for Fairmont Eastern Canada,  declined to share the hotel’s position on specific demands. “We remain at the negotiation table to negotiate a fair and reasonable collective convention,” she said. “We’re there to negotiate in good faith.”

The only people working, Houle said, were management and “scabs.” Houle said he was sure some union members had crossed the picket line and reported to work.

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He said the loss of workers would have an impact on the hotel. “That’s food that isn’t being prepared, cleaning that isn’t being done, servers who aren’t serving, doormen who aren’t opening doors.”

Indeed, two guests and one on-the-job employee, all of whom refused to give their names, told The Gazette that rooms weren’t being cleaned. Asked what services are being offered, the employee said, “almost nothing but breakfast.”

The two guests said management had served them breakfast Thursday morning.

The hotel restaurants have been closed and room service is not on offer, Groleau said.

With security workers on strike, Houle said a thief had stolen a number of suitcases and blamed the theft on management. “It’s the boss’s responsibility to manage work relations,” he said. Groleau declined to comment on whether such an incident occurred.

Striking workers picketed outside the hotel’s front door on René-Lévesque Blvd., resulting in the main entrance being closed to visitors. The hotel café was also closed, with a sign blaming the closure on “ongoing negotiations with our unionized employees.”

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Benny, a laundry worker who declined to give his last name, said pay was by far the most important issue for him. “Everything is expensive nowadays,” he said.

Monica, a housekeeper who also withheld her last name, said she was picketing in hopes of a raise. She said she wasn’t expecting a resolution “for the moment.”

Houle said a sufficient pay increase was the least the hotel could do, following a post-pandemic period in which “everyone working in hotels worked for two.” He said employees had faced mandatory overtime in the push to ramp operations back up. “Where’s the boss to say thank you?”

“There has been an enormous cost-of-living increase in Montreal. Rents are on fire, groceries cost more,” Houle said.

The Queen Elizabeth Hotel has 950 rooms, which Houle said have gone up in price by 61 per cent since the pandemic. “We’re not asking for a 61 per cent pay increase,” he said.

With files from La Presse Canadienne.

jawilson@postmedia.com

x.com/jackdlwilson

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