Bouchard is among 300 members of the Workers Union of Marriott Château Champlain, which is affiliated to the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), who have been on strike here since February 17.

More than 95 percent of the hotel workers voted to go on strike the day after the company locked them out. They had been working without a contract since June 30, 2003.

“The company never liked our decision to join the CSN three months ago,” said picket Karim Nohra, a member of the local executive and of the grievance committee.

The hotel workers had previously been members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). They decided to change their union affiliation in order to help strengthen their bargaining power vis-à-vis Marriott Château Champlain. According to Nohra, some 80 percent of unionized hotel workers in Montreal are affiliated to the CSN.

The different union locals don’t have a common bargaining committee, but their union officials meet before the end of their contracts, which expire at the same time, and set a standard contract proposal presented by all the union locals to the bosses.

He said Marriott Château Champlain opposes the two-year contract proposed by the union, which would mean that the new contract would expire in June 2005, at the same time as the other hotels in Montreal.

Strikers are also fighting for an improvement in wages, now ranging from Can$10.82 to Can$22 an hour.

The unionists are fighting to win a 4.5 percent wage increase in the first year and 5 percent in the second year of the contract, as well as a catch-up amount for certain categories of workers. Banquet team waiters, for example, earn less than their counterparts in other five-star hotels in Montreal.

The company is seeking to impose a number of concessions regarding job postings, holidays, and cuts in the number of vacation weeks from 5 to 4. The bosses also want to introduce irregular work schedules in order to respond to last-minute changes in workloads.

“These offers would affect our family life,” said Yanick Charbonneau, president of the Workers Union of Marriott Château Champlain, who was quoted on the CSN web site.

Hotel workers reported that four carloads of workers who have been on strike against Archivex here since September visited their picket line to support their struggle.

Strikers at Canadian National Railways (CN) have also joined the hotel workers’ picket line, which is only a few blocks away from the Gare Centrale, Montreal’s main train station, where some of the CN workers picket.

“This strengthens our morale. After all, we are all in the same boat,” Nohra said.

Christian Cornejo is a member of UNITE Local 2582 in Montreal. Yannick Duguay, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 500, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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