Below is the text of a speech delivered by Metropolitan Hotel Workers Committee member, Emily Tang, at an International Womens Day forum put on by the Toronto New Socialist Group. The Metropolitan Hotel Workers Committee has not organized – as the bureaucrats try to assert – to undermine their union. On the contrary, they are building the kind of movement from below in their union that is indispensible to ensure that the agenda of employers is challenged and that unions can be organizations of real struggle.

I work in the Banquet Services Department of the Metropolitan Hotel in downtown Toronto. A very important struggle for immigrant workers, especially immigrant women, is taking place in my workplace.

I came to Canada nearly 20 years ago from Hong Kong with my family. My mother became a hotel worker and I did too. I started working at the Metropolitan Hotel seven years ago. The hotel is owned by a multi-millionaire, Henry Wu, who also comes from Hong Kong. His entry into Canada and his life here have been a lot easier than for most Chinese immigrants, including many of his own workers. The Metropolitan is a luxury four-star hotel that treats its customers very well and they in turn have high expectations. The workers are almost all immigrants. Filipinos make up the largest group, with many Chinese, South East and South Asian and West Indians. Of the roughly 200 workers at the hotel at the moment, about 150 are women. In some departments, like housekeeping, women make up almost the entire workforce.

Difficult Working Conditions

Working conditions in the hotel are very poor. The work is bad for our health. The chemicals used in cleaning make housekeeping workers sick. I work on banquets. I have to lift heavy equipment, like food warmers, that I’m not supposed to lift. My shoulder, back, neck and arms have been injured and the pain has gotten worse. At least one worker in ten at the hotel is presently injured, but we are all pushed to perform regular jobs. Modified duties exist only in name. One worker was driven from her job after 14 years because she developed cancer and they did not want to be bothered with her.

We work long hours with no breaks or time to eat. It is common for me to work 16 hours without a rest. One time, I took a cookie that was going to be thrown out anyway, because I had not yet had a break and a 12-course banquet was about to start. I was disciplined for taking company property. The laws that regulate breaks and hours of work are ignored but, if we don’t get a dinner break, they still deduct half an hour off of our pay.

Management harasses us. Housekeepers tell me that if managers don’t like them they will deliberately mess up the rooms after the work has been done and blame it on the workers. The official language in the dining room is English, but one of my friends was punished for saying a few words in Spanish to a friend in the kitchen. The owner and department head are Chinese, so Cantonese is not punished but other languages are. Workers who speak out or try to defend others are especially targeted. False accusations of theft and assault are used to drive people out of work. The Metropolitan is an abusive sweatshop.

We have a union in the hotel but you would hardly know it. The leaders of HERE Local 75 have not challenged our employer in any serious way and we have no confidence in them. A collective agreement was signed two years ago, but we had no real input into it and have yet to see a copy of the final agreement. We hardly ever see our union reps, even when we phone repeatedly. Grievances are not filed or followed up on. We took up a petition a couple of years ago for the union rep to be replaced. Forty of us signed it in my department alone, but the local president never even acknowledged the petition. Some of those who have tried to speak out have been victimized by the employer with the assistance of the union. For example, one worker, Tony, was fired and his arbitration was sabotaged. The witness he most needed to speak on his behalf was not called by the union’s lawyer. Another worker, Carlos, was elected as a steward but the president removed him from the position. The union leaders wanted to get rid of Tony and Carlos as much as the hotel did.

Rank and File Organizing

For some of us in the hotel, it was clear that nothing would change until we took action. Fifty-six of us are now part of the rank and file Metropolitan Hotel Workers Committee. We have organized several actions with the support of community allies. Delegations have gone to the hotel and rallies have been held outside. When one of our members demanded to know why he was not being properly represented, the president of the union told him that “if you need help go to the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty”. Our committee recently held a very disappointing meeting with the president and it is clear that the present leadership has no interest in seriously fighting our employer.

However, our committee has won some concessions already. Grievances among workers have been resolved due to our pressure. We are going to step up our actions in the workplace and, with the support of allies like the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), organize outside as well. Recently, 300 bookings at the hotel were cancelled because of our work. We intend to demand that high profile customers like the Human Rights Commission stop using the hotel. With the help of friends at York University, we are pressing for Henry Wu to be kicked off the Board of the York Foundation.

We Won’t Be Intimidated!

The company and the union bureaucracy are now working together to try to stop us. The union rep and hotel manager just called together the shop stewards in the hotel to jointly attack OCAP for supporting our committee. They are now circulating a letter within the workplace that demands that OCAP stay away from the hotel. Workers are being threatened and bullied into signing the letter but despite this, many are refusing to co-operate. Of course, we will not take seriously names on a letter that were obtained by threats, but this does show how bad our management is and how corrupt the union leaders are.

People on the Committee are also being targeted. When I am called into work now, they take care to isolate me from other workers. The head of hotel security accused one of our Committee members this week of stealing a pen from a guest’s room, but he stood up to this and filed grievances for harassment and false accusations. He pretended to use the washroom after being grilled by the head of security and, after he came out, he waited for a few minutes then went back in. The head of security had all the garbage cans emptied on the floor and was going through them looking for the non-existent pen!

None of these intimidation tactics are going to stop us. We are being approached by workers in other hotels and hope many others will follow our lead. We are not anti-union, but intend to take our union back from the bureaucracy that presently controls it.

Across Toronto and Canada, immigrant women face exploitation and abuse. At the Metropolitan Hotel, we are organizing to fight back. Please support our struggle for justice.