Article content Guests at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal are not exactly getting the luxury service the hotel is known for these days. There is no housekeeping service — except for clean towels. The café in the lobby is closed, a sign says, and food service was limited to breakfast only, a guest told The Gazette on Thursday.
The hotel, which is also home base for the Presidents Cup this week on Île Bizard, is in the midst of a week-long strike that has hundreds of employees off the job. Wages are a key sticking point, with the union seeking a 21 per cent pay increase over four years, starting with a 10 per cent raise in the first year. That’s the deal workers at the Hilton in Laval reached.
Employees at both hotels are represented by the CSN. But there are other issues too, said hotel concierge François Houle, who is also a spokesperson for the union, which represents the more than 600 striking Queen Elizabeth Hotel workers. “We’re on strike today because the employer refuses to negotiate in good faith,” Houle said.
He said the mood among strikers was energetic, but that he didn’t think hotel management was listening. Reached by phone Friday, Andrée-Ann Groleau, public relations director for Fairmont Eastern Canada, declined to share the hotel’s position on specific demands. “We remain at the negotiation table to negotiate a fair and reasonable collective convention,” she said.
“We’re there to negotiate in good faith.” The only .