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Delta Kitchener workers reject contract offer

Kitchener, ON. On Friday, July 17, 2009, unionized workers at the Delta Kitchener-Waterloo hotel voted to reject management's contract offer by 85%.

The approximately 50 full-time employees, many of them immigrants, work in the hotel's housekeeping, banquet, restaurant and maintenance departments. Major issues outstanding include wages, gratuities for banquet employees and overtime pay. For example:

• Room attendants at the hotel currently earn $10.19 per hour, while their unionized counterparts at the Delta Hotel in Mississauga near Pearson International Airport earn $14.75 per hour. Management's offer would raise room attendants' pay by $1.03 over 3 years.

• Banquet servers receive only 70% of the service charge paid by groups holding meetings and other events at the hotel, while Unite Here members at other unionized Delta hotels in Ontario keep between 75% and 91%.

• All Delta workers in Kitchener receive overtime pay after working 44 hours per week, while their Unite Here colleagues across province receive overtime pay after 40 hours of work.

"I think the company's offer is sad," said housekeeper Chastity Cormier. "We all work really hard cleaning the rooms and keeping the guests happy and coming back. We deserve more than $1.03."

Hotel worker Maya Corr, an immigrant from Gambia, commented on management's offer, "They're spending so much on renovations, but they have no money for us. Just because some of us are immigrants doesn't mean they can take advantage of us."

Although no negotiation sessions are scheduled, workers are hopeful the rejection vote will lead to further negotiations. "I hope to get back to the bargaining table soon," said bargaining committee member and 29-year Delta employee Peter Musselman. "There's room on both sides to move and we're close on a lot of issues. But the company needs to put more money on the table."

Unite Here is the largest hospitality union in Ontario and across North America. Unite Here represents over 100,000 hotel workers in over 900 hotels in Canada and the United States, including Delta hotels in Mississauga, Toronto, Scarborough, Ottawa and Richmond, BC.

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