Tuesday, July 1, 2025
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Sheraton Vancouver Guildford workers on strike for fair wages
SURREY, BC, July 5, 2025 /CNW/ - More than 140 hotel workers at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford hotel began strike action today after failing to reach a fair collective agreement with their employer. "Our members deserve better and are trying to catch up," said Unifor National President Lana Payne. "These workers kept the doors open during some of the most challenging years in hospitality. Now, they're standing together to demand better wages in the face of a skyrocketing cost of living in the Lower Mainland. This strike is about fairness, respect, and economic justice." Unifor Local 3000 members at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford have been without a contract since April 2024. After more than a year of bargaining, workers voted to reject a tentative agreement and began legal strike action at 5:30 p.m. Pacific on July 5,2025. "This hotel runs because of our members—and they're done waiting for a fair deal," said Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle. "They're taking a stand not just for themselves, but for all hospitality workers who deserve better pay and respect on the job." The Sheraton Vancouver Guildford is owned by Pacific Reach Properties, a Vancouver-based investment firm with holdings in real estate, hospitality, healthcare, and tech. The company outsources its labour negotiations to Hospitality Industrial Relations (HIR), a third-party group that bargains on behalf of hotel operators across the province. "Wages at this hotel have flatlined while rent, groceries, and gas have soared," said Adrian Burnett, President of Unifor Local 3000. "Our members are scraping by while a wealthy ownership group tries to nickel-and-dime them. This strike is the direct result of that imbalance." Unifor Local 3000 represents 120 full-time and 24 part-time workers at the hotel, including room attendants, front desk staff, banquet servers, kitchen workers, and maintenance workers. The union says it remains open to productive talks but warns the strike will continue until a fair deal is on the table. Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 320,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future. SOURCE Unifor View original content to download multimedia: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Canada Warms Up to Fossil Fuels With New LNG Export Terminal
In March 2024, Canada's then resource minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, declared, 'We are not interested in investing in LNG facilities.' This month, LNG Canada, the country's first operating export terminal for the fuel, shipped its first cargo. Many believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Canada's energy resources and world markets. The last couple of Canadian federal governments have been vocal opponents of the oil and gas industry in the country that is home to some of the world's most abundant hydrocarbon resources. For two terms, the Justin Trudeau-led administration worked hard to make life as hard as possible for the companies that exploit those resources by increasing red tape for expansion and tightening emission-related requirements as far as they would go. This was the context in which Jonathan Wilkinson made his declaration, adding to it the claim that 'The government is opposed to using government money to fund inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.' Instead, said government chose to bet on carbon taxes and supposedly efficient subsidies for things such as EV batteries and EVs themselves—a field where one major Canadian subsidy beneficiary declared bankruptcy earlier this year and others are reconsidering their Canadian growth plans. While the Canadian government was doing this, the private sector, as advised by Wilkinson, by the way, assessed the business case and made the investments. A group of energy majors led by Shell and also including Malaysia's Petrobas, Japan's Mitsubishi, Korea's Kogas, and PetroChina, got together and built LNG Canada—the country's first ever LNG export facility that targets specifically the Asian energy market. There are two big reasons for this choice of market. First and simplest, Canada's west coast is close to Asia. Geographical proximity means lower transportation costs, leading to a lower end-price. Second, Canadian natural gas is trading more cheaply than U.S. gas right now, which adds to the cost advantage, regardless of earlier claims that Canadian gas was too expensive for exports to make any sense. Mitsubishi Corporation 'strongly believes that further development of LNG Canada is an optimal option to explore,' one senior executive at the company told the Financial Times following the news of the first LNG shipment from Kitimat. The FT included the quote in a report describing Prime Minister Mark Carney's stated aim of turning Canada into an energy superpower—a marked departure from the Trudeau administration, whose first, second, and third priority was reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, whatever the cost. Carney has publicly embraced all forms of energy and packaged his own departure from his earlier fixation on emissions as a response to U.S. President Trump's tariff offensive, which now offers Canada a chance to develop its energy resources. As stated by Carney's energy minister, 'President Trump's tariffs are disrupting trade, threatening Canadian jobs and industries, and rewriting the rules of the game.' Also, 'These [LNG] projects are part of our broader strategy to protect Canada's energy security, diversify our trade, and enhance our long-term competitiveness, all while building the most reliable, low-carbon energy possible,' Tim Hodgson said, as quoted by the FT. This does seem like a marked departure from past positions for the man who set up as many net-zero financial alliances as he managed to have time for, and who, for all intents and purposes, built a reputation as a most active net-zero champion not only in Canada but globally. And yet, Carney has paused the carbon tax that many Canadians blame for the drop in living standards, he has embraced gas, and he even appears not to be against new pipelines. That said, not everyone believes that Carney means what he says. The carbon tax, for instance, has only been paused for households but not for companies. Canada is still very much on board with net-zero. But the shift in federal government narrative at the very least might be an indication that some in that government are acknowledging the realities of energy and the fact that oil and gas continue to be very much in demand, despite Mark Carney's own claim in a 2021 book that 'To meet the 1.5C [global warming] target, more than 80 per cent of current fossil fuel reserves (including three-quarters of coal, half of gas, one-third of oil) would need to stay in the ground, stranding these assets.' Naturally, net-zero advocates claim demand for LNG does not justify more LNG capacity anywhere in the world, with a glut coming due to overcapacity. Serious analysts, meanwhile, point to things like a lack of infrastructure as a challenge for further LNG growth in Canada because it increases costs for new projects. Yet, as usual, it will be the market that will have the final word. If there is enough demand to motivate all these costs—LNG plants are never cheap, anywhere in the world—there will be more LNG export facilities in Canada. Net-zero advocates would just have to swallow that. By Irina Slav for More Top Reads From this article on
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Musk says he is forming new political party after fallout with Trump
Billionaire Elon Musk said Saturday he is forming a third political party, after a dramatic falling out with Donald Trump, indicating he will make good on threats he made if the president's domestic policy bill became law. 'When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,' Trump's former 'first buddy' said on his social media platform, X. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' Musk, the largest individual donor to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and, until recently, a close adviser to the president who spearheaded his administration's push to cut government waste, had criticized Trump's 'big beautiful bill' because of estimates that it would add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit. Musk's criticism of the bill was the catalyst for a major falling out between the two men last month. That feud seemingly cooled after Musk expressed regret and deleted the most incendiary social media posts he made about Trump, but it reignited in the last several days as the bill neared passage. Trump signed the bill into law on Friday. It's unclear to what extent Musk has taken steps to legally form the party, which would be required to register with the Federal Election Commission. The most recent FEC filings showed no indication that has happened. The world's richest man has indicated he wants a party that is fiscally conservative and reins in spending but has offered few other details about what the party's platform would be. Musk and Trump hold similar views on contemporary social issues. But Musk has argued the Republican policy agenda will increase the debt, calling it 'debt slavery.' The two-party system in the United States has long been criticized by both registered Democrats and registered Republicans, but efforts in the last century to form a third party have shown little success. Billionaire Ross Perot ran for president as an independent in 1992, winning nearly a fifth of the popular vote, but carried no states in the election, which was won by Bill Clinton. As CNN previously reported, experts in campaign finance and political science say it is financially and legally difficult to create a new party, and voters and candidates are hesitant to join. Musk said in other posts to social media this week that his party would become an active political force during next year's midterm elections and that it would initially focus on supporting candidates in just a handful of House and Senate races. Trump, in turn, has made his own threats against the man who at one point was his most visible adviser. The president said earlier this week the government may reconsider its massive contracts with Musk's companies and described the Department of Government Efficiency, which the billionaire previously helmed, as a monster that may 'go back and eat Elon.'
