I like Moose Jaw. Years ago, probably twenty or so I stayed at the Heritage Inn for a month while the crew I was with did maintenance work on the Alliance pipeline. We were toiling from sun up to sun down that perfect September and the staff at the Heritage treated us so well, even going to the trouble of making us bag lunches with our names printed on them like we were kids heading off to school. To this day if I’m in the area I’ll still pop in to the city and grab a bite to eat for no reason other than I still appreciate the way I was treated years ago.
On Tuesday I happened to be in Moose Jaw and saw a picket line in front fo the Heritage so I stopped to chat with the employees. Discovering that they had been locked out, I was appalled to learn the details. The employees had attempted "to bargain with Heritage Inn Hotels for months with the hopes of achieving a new collective agreement.’
Instead of bargaining in good faith, the Heritage responded with a list of demands and concessions including “the full removal of benefits.” Also, the hotel was offering raises between nine cents (yes you read that correctly) and eighty cents. What an insult.
Remember, management locked out the employees…but not all of them. The non-Canadian employees are crossing the picket line, it’s outrageous what’s going on in Canada when employers can exploit cheap foreign labour and Canadian citizens are locked out of their workplace. What would our forebears think if they knew that the rights they fought for would be trampled upon so cavalierly?
Unfortunately, the workers are on their own. They shouldn’t expect any help from anti-labour conservative politicians, from our foppish Prime Minister who is so welded to his ‘diversity’ agenda that he doesn’t realize the importation of millions of foreigners has driven up rent and lowered wages or from the preening Rolex socialist who leads the federal NDP.
Instead, the workers at the Heritage could use your help. It would be almost too much to ask or expect anyone to join them on the line. It’s the age of TikTok narcissism after all. But if nothing else, use your phones to voice your displeasure at the way your fellow citizens are being treated. Call the Heritage @ 306-693-7550 or e-mail the owner Sandra Kanegawa…sandrak@xdream-inc.com. Thanks for reading this Moose Jaw.
See you soon,
Jeff Potts
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
