Quality scabs

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by George Maddux

Most who check into a hotel don't spend the day making beds and scrubbing sinks. But Dorval's Quality Hotel might be changing that. Ever since March 16 when the 100 employees of the 159-room hotel went on strike, illegal suitcase-hauling replacement workers have been getting through picket lines by pretending to be customers, says Daniel Villeneuve, president of the Quebec Service Employees Union (SQEES) Local 298.

Villeneuve says union agents secretly staying at the hotel told him of the practice. Hotel general manager Melroy Fernando denies the charge. "That's a very grave accusation," says Fernando. "I don't have any scabs. We're all tired but we're working very hard." Although the hotel has not raised its wage offer to its workers, Fernando thinks that they'll come around after realizing "that they've been misled." He says that management including the hotel president has been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to customers.

Villeneuve has filed 25 complaints over the illegal hiring of scabs, although he admits that "it's a long procedure to get a judgment, it takes time to be heard." Villeneuve, who is calling on consumers to boycott the hotel, says that some of the strikers remain unclear on the concept of labour conflict. "One of the [striking employees] came to me and complained that the boss hadn't paid her son, who is working there as a scab."