More than 30 hotel workers have been fired from the Coast Bastion Hotel in Nanaimo, just one week before Christmas.
The staff were first laid off in March when the pandemic initially hit but now the positions have officially been terminated.
Marcia Little was a server at the hotel’s restaurant for 13 years, and on Thursday, she was told the company was letting her go.
“This is just not the time to do this, one week before Christmas. It’s devastating to all of us, we’re all just so upset,” said Little.
She is among 30 of the hotel’s staff who were laid off in March; they were never called back. Nine months later to the day, they were terminated.
“It’s shocking that the government would allow it to happen. It’s shocking that Coast Hotels would do it. It’s shocking that the Operating Engineers would allow them to do it. They’ve been aware of what their plan was for months and they did nothing,” said Garry Constable, another hotel server who was terminated Thursday.
The International Union of Operating Engineers pension fund owns the building the Coast Bastion hotel leases.
The union representing Coast workers says they’re asking for the laid-off worker’s recall rights to be extended to 24 months.
“We implore you to keep these people, to rescind any terminations, to not terminate anyone else. It’s the wrong thing to do,” said Mark Atkins with Unite Here Local 40.
Today, Coast Hotels issued a statement saying “Our negotiated, collective agreement … identifies that after nine months of temporary layoff, action in the way of rehiring or permanent layoff must take place. Given current, and forecast, business levels we cannot bring additional employees back at this time and remain solvent.”
For the workers, the timing couldn’t be worse, saying they didn’t have to fire anyone.
“For them to kick us when we’re already down. I just don’t have too many words to say to them,” said Little.
The union disputes the need to terminate the employees during the pandemic.
The company has also notified the union that employee terminations are coming at Coast Hotels in Victoria and Prince George next week.
In June workers with Unite Here Local 40 were part of a hunger strike as they called for the protection of hotel jobs lost during the pandemic.
Earlier this month the union issued a release warning the terminations and calling for an extension of recall rights.
Kendall Hanson
