On May 12 2021, MP Jenny Kwan made a statement about the situation of women who have been terminated from their jobs as hotel workers:
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"Mr. Speaker, the Liberals say they want a she-covery, yet they were silent when Pacific Gateway became a federal quarantine hotel and 140 long-term workers were terminated, nearly two-thirds of them immigrant women. Hilton Metrotown has locked out its workers and terminated 97 workers, the majority of them racialized women.
A feminist government would not tolerate the firing of women to replace them for less, yet this is happening across the country, from Metro Vancouver to Ottawa. Management wants to roll back these long-term workers’ wages to minimum wage, cut their health and pension benefits and eliminate severance.
Unite Here has launched the Unequal Women campaign to bring attention to this disgraceful practice. These women are not disposable. We should not tolerate any hotel firing women to replace them for less. They should not be allowed to receive government support if they treat their workers in this despicable way.
I am calling on the government to intervene to ensure hotel employers—"
