Since our last update about the luxury hotel that terminated over 200 workers in the middle of this pandemic, Hotel X Toronto is feeling the heat. Not only have workers and supporters emailed and called the hotel, demanding they pay over $1.4 million in termination pay, but their expansion plans have now also been put into question.
This Monday, Hotel X sought permission to build a new facility with 400 rooms from Exhibition Place’s Board of Directors, because the hotel leases publicly owned land from them. At the meeting, former Hotel X worker Kris Archer and Mary Gellatly from Parkdale Community Legal Services stepped in, asking the Board not to consider the expansion plans until Hotel X pays up all that they owe to workers!
Click here to join the action this Friday outside Hotel X at 4:00 pm
Certainly, if Hotel X can afford to build a second facility, then they have enough to pay the 200+ workers who are each owed 3 months of wages as termination pay. Joe Cressy, a City of Toronto Councillor, supported workers by issuing a request for the Exhibition Place Board to review fair wage policies for future development, such as by Hotel X. Click here to read today’s Toronto Star coverage to learn more.
But workers aren’t finished letting Hotel X know that their business model of subcontracting their workers–to keep labour costs low and avoid responsibility–is shameful! Support these workers by joining the socially-distanced public action they will hold outside Hotel X on Friday, October 30 at 4:00 pm. Sign up now for the #PayUpHotelX Public Action this Friday at Lakeshore Blvd. & Ontario Place Blvd. Don’t forget your masks!
If you can’t be there in person, you can still call the Hotel X General Manager Fariyal Hasham at 647-475-9269 to demand the hotel pay up now. Ask your friends to call, too; share on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also post the petition (www.15andfairness.org/payuphotelx) on social media, tag @HotelXToronto, and use the hashtag #PayUpHotelX. Finally, you can warn customers about Hotel X’s bad treatment of workers by leaving a review on Google or Trip Advisor.
Together, we can pressure this bad boss to take responsibility