As striking hotel staff rolled out a red carpet for film festival fan photo opportunities Sunday, one besieged big inn manager said he hopes contract talks resume soon. Nine days after workers launched rotating picket lines in time for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), both sides issued statements accusing each other of delaying negotiations.
“We continue to be treated like second-class citizens by the Hyatt owners,” hotel room attendant Althea Porter-Harvey said in a Unite Here statement. “We deserve better than that,” she stated. “We’re joining the street party today.”
The union claims Toronto hotel owners cite recession issues for seeking to boost work hours without pay hikes, but insisted Canadian and U.S. guest bookings are “rebounding.”
Hyatt Regency general manager Bruce Flyer said his hotel, which remains open to guests as a TIFF centre, has sought to settle with the union since January.
“During this period, we have honoured the terms of our expired agreement,” Flyer said in an e-mail, adding Hyatt wants a deal “appropriate for these economic times that is fair to all parties.”
Flyer claimed the union delayed talks more than six months and chose “to demonstrate and strike rather than continue our work towards finding solutions.”
Hotel negotiators agreed to meet again Sept. 23, “but have not received final confirmation from union leadership,” he said.
Unite Here staged its first pre-festival walkout Sept. 3 at the Hyatt on King St. W., followed by a return there last Friday, during a day-long strike outside the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. Workers picketed the Holiday Inn on Bloor St. on Saturday and two hours Sunday at the Hyatt Regency.
Since its first walkout 10 days ago, the union claimed Hyatt “made no move to address any of the hotel worker concerns.”
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