There was a time when it was easy to find a unionized hotel to stay in and more importantly in which to hold union conventions. That was, of course, before the province-wide strike in 1954. The strike was lost and Alberta hotel employees were left without union protection.

It has been an uphill battle ever since for hotel employee to win certification as Alberta labour legislation has gone from bad to worse. The difficulty faced in organizing hotels is a concern not only for hotel employees and the unions that try to organize them. It is a problem for all Alberta unions and their members whose policies and preferences are to patronize union facilities.

It follows, therefore, that we should all assume the responsibility of solving the problem. One way we can contribute to the solution is by staying in unionized hotels and by making sure that we use fully unionized hotels whenever they can accommodate our conventions, conferences, seminars, schools, etc.

That isn’t always achievable because so many union functions involve more participants or require more space than can be accommodated by the few fully unionized hotels available. However, many of our smaller events such as seminars, meetings and social events can more easily be accommodated.

There is no excuse for not patronizing fully unionized hotels whenever possible and it is important to all Alberta unionists that we do so. When we patronize a union hotel we send a message of support to our unionized brothers and sisters who fought for the right to belong. We also send a message to other hotels that if they want our quite significant business, they must stop putting roadblocks in the way of their employees who want to be unionized.

Some unions and individual union officials excuse their patronizing of non-union hotels by saying that by demonstrating how much revenue they produce, those hotels will get the message and more readily accept unionization. So far not one non-union hotel has succumbed to such overtures.

The long established union principles of buying union and supporting union products and facilities is still the best approach to organizing. We owe it to ourselves, our brothers and sisters and to fair employers to stick to our union principles and patronize unionized facilities.

For your information here is a list of unionized facilities in Alberta:

• Calgary Fairmont Palliser Hotel

• Hawthorn Hotel & Suites

• Edmonton Chateau Lacombe Crowne Plaza

• Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel

• Jasper Jasper Park Lodge

• Banff Banff Centre for Conferences

• Calgary Ramada – Housekeeping employees

• Westin – Lounge employees

• Lake Louise Chateau Lake Louise – Maintenance employees

• Banff Banff Springs Hotels – Maintenance employees

Note: United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 is certified at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton where they are currently negotiating to achieve a first collective agreement.