It seems that just before before Christmas, Cadillac Fairview, the owner of Pacific Centre Mall, saw fit to let go 150 cleaning workers who lost their jobs just before Christmas. They were earning around $12 an hour with paid medical benefits. Meanwhile, the new contractors pay as little as $10.50 an hour, with few benefits (a living wage in Vancouver is $19.92 an hour, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). So on December 21st, Unifor and Santa Claus brought the out-o-work cleaners to the mall’s food court for a flash mob performance of Christmas carols to bring attention to what they’ve had to go through at Christmas.

“We’re providing a bit of entertainment for the shoppers the last weekend before Christmas — but in a way that lets them know that for these workers, Christmas this year will be very difficult,” said Gavin McGarrigle, British Columbia Area Director for Unifor. “Cadillac Fairview says it has nothing to do with setting wage rates, even though up to 90 per cent of the value of any cleaning contract is labour,” McGarrigle said. “It’s the company’s decision to change contractors that is driving down wages and cost these cleaners their jobs.”

If you’d like to send messages of suppert to the cleaners, email fairnessforcleaners [at] unifor.org.

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