Union representing Sheraton Ottawa Hotel workers calling for boycott

Unitehere Local 261 is asking Ottawa residents and visitors to stay away from the Sheraton Ottawa Hotel until it agrees to rehire staff members it let go in March and extend recall rights so that those staff members can return when tourism picks up again post-pandemic.

Sheraton Ottawa terminated 70 laid off workers in March of this year after those same workers had been fighting for a recall agreement for six months.

“Hotel workers have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic — many of them not been able to weather the storm in the same way that large corporations and hotel owners say they can,” explains union spokesperson Melissa Sobers. “[They're] being denied a chance to go back to their jobs.”

Somerset Ward City Councillor Catherine McKenney stands with the union.

“We're calling [for] a boycott of Sheraton Ottawa until they've done the right thing. It doesn't cost them any money, but it ensures that we are taking care of the very people that have taken care of us.”

The councillor says the city needs to invest in tourism as pandemic restrictions ease and the industry bounces back in the wake of COVID-19, but that cannot be done without supporting those who work in the sector.

“Nobody would agree that their tax dollars should be going to support a multi-million dollar corporation that doesn't do right by its own employees, that doesn't ensure that they will have a job to go back to once the pandemic is over,” adds McKenney.