TORONTO - Hotel workers at the Hyatt Regency, home of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, have started a one-day walkout.
Their union, UNITE HERE, says the walkout began after talks with the hotel owner ran past a midnight deadline without a new agreement.
The union says picketing is to begin at 7:30 a.m., followed by a rally of hotel workers and supporters at 5:30 p.m. in front of the hotel.
The walkout at the hotel (on King St.) comes a week before it is set to be the hotel headquarters for the Toronto International Film Festival.
Union spokeswoman Althea Porter-Harvey says the hotel workers will return to work Saturday, adding the union is still hopeful of reaching an agreement.
Porter-Harvey says wealthy owners keep buying and selling properties and treating hotel workers as if the economy is still in a recession.
”All we are asking is that they not lock in the recession for their workers, because the recession is over in the hotel sector,” she said in a statement early Friday.