[mobglob-discuss] Solidarity Request from workers at Metropolitan Hotel & OCAP

[Tony Tracy]

Please see the enclosed request to Vancouver activists from the Ontario
Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) on behalf of the Metropolitan Hotel
Workers Committee.

 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 20:50:16 -0800 (PST)
From: .. pj .. <gidget at resist.ca>
Subject: Solidarity Request

Greetings friends & fellow workers in Vancouver!

    I'm writing to ask for your help in a campaign which we are working on
here in Toronto.  I'm sorry about the short notice, but hopefully some of
you can respond or put me in touch with some one who can.

The workers at the Metropolitan Hotel have been screwed by this nasty boss
and management for quite some time (details below), and we suspect
conditions are probably similar at the Met Hotel there in Vancouver. Their
union has not effectively done much to protect them, and a few weeks ago
they formed their own independent committee to fight back against the
abuse.  Already over 50 workers have joined the committee.  They are
predominantly immigrant workers, and as you can see from below, OCAP is
backing them with a rally at the Hotel this Saturday.  If we can confirm
the home address of the owner, we might pay him and his neighbors a visit
as well.

Most urgently, we are hoping that some of you could pull together a small
rally, or at least a brief leafleting at the Met Hotel there, explaining
our action, and demanding a response from management.  It would be great
if you could flyer there this Saturday, while our rally is going on, and
probably try to hit them around the high traffic lunch period (outside
would be fine!).  Even a small presence would really send a message to
this management, and help out these workers immensely.  If there is good
response from the workers there, you could also flyer during shift change,
wherever the workers go in and out, with our contact info, and a brief
description of the Toronto committee, to see if they are facing similar
conditions, and to put them in touch should any of them want to organize a
similar fightback.  We can send you PDF's of the flyers for saturday, and
for more info about the committee.  Do you think you, or someone you know
could head down there Saturday?  The address is 645 Howe Street.

Thanks in advance.  Please write me here, and/or ocap at tao.ca with any
ideas you have on this campaign, and feel free to pass along to other
rank-n-file activist contacts.

in solidarity,
   -=pj lilley=-


JUSTICE FOR VICTIMIZED HOTEL WORKERS!
------------------------------------

RALLY

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1.OO PM

THE METROPOLITAN HOTEL

108 CHESTNUT STREET
(east of University, south of dundas)

CALLED BY THE ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY IN SUPPORT OF THE
METROPOLITAN HOTEL WORKERS COMMITTEE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Metropolitan Hotel offers luxury service to well off guests but all
this pampering comes at a price that is paid by its workers. The operation
run by Henry Wu and his managers at the Metropolitan engages in an
appalling abuse and exploitation of the mainly immigrant workforce that
richly needs to be challenged.

OCAP has been asked to take up the case of four victimized hotel workers
driven out of work by Wu's regime. Shahid is a devout Muslim man from
Pakistan whose religious devotions bothered managers at the Metropolitan.
He was harassed to the point where, in extreme emotional duress, he
resigned his job. Rosalina from the Philippines was fired for her refusal
to be intimidated by management bullying. Anita, another Filipina worker,
was driven out after contracting cancer. Tony, a Brazilian worker and
leading rank and file activist hated by management, was fired on the basis
of bogus assault charges that did not stand up in court. All were
considered insufficiently docile or capable of generating profits and
were, accordingly, discarded without regard to the contributions they had
already made to enriching the Wu family and its hangers on.

The Metropolitan Hotel Workers Committee, with the support of OCAP, is
organizing to win justice and reinstatement for these workers and to
address the many horrendous grievances of the whole workforce. The union
that organizes this hotel has ruled out any defence of these workers
(three of whom were union members) and we will not defer to such passivity
in the name of unity.

Please join hotel workers, OCAP members, trade unionists and activists
from a number of the immigrant communities that make up this City in a
rally to challenge employer abuse and to demand workers' rights now.

For more information call OCAP at (416) 925-6939