A labour union in Vancouver is demanding more staffing and proper payment for hospitality workers as the 2026 FIFA World Cup is right around the corner.
Michelle Travis, a spokesperson for Unite Here Local 40, which represents workers from the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel, says hospitality staff are not seeing the success from FIFA trickling down to them.
Travis claims that fair wages are necessary for workers who need to support themselves and their families in Vancouver.
Starting in 2025, she says workers at the Pan Pacific Vancouver have been in bargaining with their employer, the Westmont Hospitality group, a Canadian hospitality provider.
She says the hourly wages for those workers are five to seven dollars less than those of the staff from other hotels in Vancouver, depending on the classification.
“The [workers] want to make sure that they are valued for the work that they provide, and they want to make sure that it’s not just the hotel owners and FIFA that are going to do well from this,” said Travis.
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n top of that, Travis says proper staffing and safer workloads are needed to provide the level of service that the guests would expect.
Vancouver is expected to see a total of 350,000 visitors in and around the city while hosting seven matches during the global sports event.
City estimates, released earlier this year, show Vancouver has roughly 13,000 hotel rooms.
According to Travis, the workers want to make sure that different departments of the hotel are properly staffed so that the workers will not be doing jobs of multiple people at once.
“They’re proud to welcome folks from around the world to come to Vancouver. They’re excited about that,” said Travis. “On the other hand, because the staffing is not at the levels it should be, [workers] are feeling overworked.”
She also suggested giving a “World Cup Bonus” to hospitality workers ahead of an “extremely busy summer.”
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“One of the things we’ve floated with employers, but also the city, is that with so much money being made, how are they going to value the work that hospitality workers are doing, since they’re the face of the industry?”
1130 NewsRadio reached out to the BC Hotels Association and Westmont Hospitality Group for comments.
— With files from David Nadallini