Marathon Vancouver airport hotel strike ends after 1,411 days

Pacific Gateway Hotel is seen in Richmond, B.C., Thursday, March 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

RICHMOND, B.C. — The union representing workers at the Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport Hotel says staff have ratified a new collective agreement, ending a nearly four-year-long strike.

Unite Here Local 40 says the 1,411-day strike was the longest in Canadian history and the agreement provides a pathway back to work for 143 workers terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the hotel was called Pacific Gateway.

The union says in a statement the deal also provides job security protections and higher wages.

Local president Zailda Chan says in the statement that 70 per cent of the hotel’s workers were let go during the pandemic, when the hotel was used as a quarantine site.

But instead of giving up, Chan says co-workers walked off the job, demanding their colleagues be reinstated.

The strike surpasses the Vale Inco mine strike in Ontario that lasted almost two years and ended in July 2010.

In May 2021, the union says the 400-room hotel in Richmond, B.C., was “fully booked” by the federal government as a quarantine site for international travellers.

Unite Here says is a joint statement with Radisson Blu that the collective agreement gives terminated workers the right to return based on seniority, with the recall period extending for 36 months, and workers will now earn the highest wages in the Vancouver airport and Richmond hotel market.

The statement says the contract includes improved medical benefits, with lower eligibility requirements, as well as industry-leading cleaning standards.

The union included a statement from Jillian Louie, who says she had worked at the hotel since 1991 until she was let go during the pandemic, and she had been wanting to return to her “second family” ever since.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2025.