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home / 世界杯决赛2022

opinion: racialized women bear the brunt of pandemic terminations in hotels

opinion: we urge provincial leaders to ensure workers laid off during the covid pandemic have first shot at getting their jobs back.

by jean swanson, viveca ellis, mahtab laghaei, seema ahluwalia

dec 19 2021
read time 3 minute read
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women's day rally at jack poole plaza in vancouver on march 8. arlen redekop / png
when stephanie dan, a single mother, found out she was terminated from the pan pacific vancouver because of the pandemic, losing her housekeeping job felt deeply personal. as a member of the squamish nation, it brought back memories of how her ancestors were forced from their land. she’s not alone in how she was fired. thousands of other workers are like her. with business recovering, hotel workers — who have dedicated decades of service — should be gearing up to go back to work. but many aren’t.

approximately 50,000 hotel workers were laid off when the pandemic hit b.c. instead of returning them to their jobs, hotels went on a firing spree and upended the lives of women like stephanie. a new report, unequal women, by unite here local 40 spotlights terminations of racialized women in the industry. many affected workers hoped to return. when they lost their jobs, they lost gains made over decades such as wages, benefits, and job security.

the report looked at a sample of b.c. hotels and found that racialized women bear the brunt of pandemic terminations in hotels. for example, the majority of workers terminated at the pan pacific are women; of that total 94 per cent are racialized. that’s a common thread across hotels. but the pan pacific could have done what some hotels did to address the labour shortage: commit to recall workers as business conditions permit.
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although the trudeau government touted the need for a feminist recovery, will this lead to more than words? stephanie found another job but earns less than she did before covid and finds the work taxing on her health.
statistics canada reported record-high job vacancies this year, particularly in industries such as food, tourism, and retail. these industries are in a bind. part of the problem is that we have a shortage of good jobs, good pay, and good working conditions. when the tourism industry comes roaring back, hotels will be in deeper trouble if they fail to bring back workers like stephanie.

hotel owners benefited from millions in covid-19 related subsidies, grants and other financial relief. yet, they are under no obligation to ensure laid-off workers reclaim their jobs as business recovers. the provincial government provided the tourism industry with almost $230 million in direct relief on top of access to $345 million in grants . this sector also received more than $1.2 billion in federal wage subsidies between march 2020 and may 2021. the owner of pan pacific, which employed over 300 workers before the pandemic, sought and received a provincial variance to extend temporary layoffs, but only for 16 workers, and received federal wage subsidies intended to keep its workforce intact.

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our organizations are working diligently to address not only the impact of the pandemic on women workers, but long-standing issues compounding working poverty in b.c. prior to covid, 42 per cent of people living below the poverty line in b.c. were already “working poor.” we have no time to waste.
through its justice at work for lone mothers in b.c. project, the single mothers’ alliance will conduct pandemic-related research with women workers, addressing the public policy needed to tackle precarious work, access to training, education and re-skilling, and the cycling of many lower-waged lone mother workers between precarious work and b.c.’s income assistance system. women transforming cities continues to push policymakers and employers to do more to protect workers’ jobs.
we urge our provincial leaders to ensure workers laid off during covid have first shot at getting their jobs back. federal leaders should condition employers’ pandemic subsidies on worker retention to ensure laid-off workers have priority over their replacements. our organizations are working together to help restore the voice and value of women who have given so much to our communities.
the government gave millions to subsidize the hotel industry that is eliminating jobs predominantly held by racialized women. there’s nothing feminist about a recovery like that. if the industry will not return their long-term, women workers back to their jobs, it’s time politicians intervene to ensure an inclusive and equitable feminist recovery once and for all.

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jean swanson is a vancouver city councillor; viveca ellis is co-founder and provincial organizer, single mothers’ alliance b.c.; mahtab laghaei is campaign lead, women transforming cities; seema ahluwalia is member at large, vancouver and district labour council.

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