Unite Here Local 40 is a BC hospitality workers’ union: hotels, airports, food service. In 2026 they became one of the most active forces at Vancouver City Hall, and they’ve been pretty explicit that the goal is to affect the outcome of October’s election.
The especially weird part is that they’re spending an enormous amount of time and money mostly opposing new hotels. Not asking for better wages, not asking that they be union-operated, just opposing hotels using whatever argument might stick. This post is an attempt to chronicle what I think is a big development in local politics.
The election threat
Unite Here’s clearest statement of intent came on March 5, at the reconvened hearing for a West End hotel at 2028–2038 Barclay Street (1, 2). A speaker named Mike Biskar opened by saying he was “speaking on behalf of Unite Here Local 40, the union for hotel workers here in British Columbia,” and then told council (transcript):
I wanna be clear about this, there is no hotel room crisis. We don’t actually need more hotel rooms, and that is us, the union for hotel workers, saying that it is a fake crisis, we believe, concocted by the hotel industry.
…
And so my message to the mayor and to the council is that if you continue to disregard the will of the people and approve applications like this one before you, in the face of opposition, we will be working to elect new representatives in the election in October.
A few days later they posted a job ad to back it up: $30/hour community canvassers for “signature gathering, persuasion, and mobilization of voters,” under the banner “Build the movement to Take Back Vancouver!”
A timeline
In April 2025, Unite Here posted one media advisory about a rally at Vancouver City Hall to oppose Vancouver’s Hotel Development Policy.
We are opposing the industry-backed plan for a simple reason: Vancouver needs affordable housing, not more hotel rooms.
As far as I can tell, that’s all they did for Vancouver lobbying in 2025. Then in 2026 things blew up:
| Date | What happened | Links |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 15 | First appearance: Marcus Beaulieu opposes a downtown hotel rezoning “on behalf of Unite Here Local 40.” | agenda · transcript · video |
| Feb 13 | Unite Here (under the “Take Back Vancouver” name) starts robocalling Vancouver residents about “giveaways to wealthy developers” | |
| Feb 17 | Unite Here opposes the Parq Casino slot expansion (the complex includes a hotel); says it rallied ~75 workers and 3,000+ letters. | agenda · transcript · video · press release |
| Mar 5 | Unite Here director Mike Biskar delivers the election threat at a West End hotel hearing. | agenda · transcript · video |
| Mar 10 | Unite Here posts a $30/hr “Take Back Vancouver” canvasser job for “mobilization of voters.” | job posting |
| Apr 14 | Unite Here organizes most of the opposition (~19 of 24 speakers against) to a Coal Harbour “floatel (floating hotel).” | agenda · transcript · video · press release |
| May 5–7 | At a hearing for a downtown hotel + a new zoning district that would allow small hotels, nearly all of the opposition is affiliated with Unite Here. When both pass, Unite Here posts a “Council Betrays Vancouver Residents Again” press release. | agenda · transcript (May 5, May 7) · video (May 5, May 7) · press release |
| May 15 | Unite Here sues Vancouver to stop the approval of the “floatel.” | press release |
| May 19 | “Who is Our City Built For?” rally at City Hall. | media advisory |
| May 28 | Unite Here delivers a petition opposing a development with 920 hotel rooms. | press release |
| Jun 2 | Unite Here’s research director (and many affiliated speakers) oppose a change to allow more hotel space downtown. | agenda · transcript · video · press release |
| Jun 4 | Unite Here sues Vancouver again to stop the May 5-7 rezonings. | press release |
That’s roughly 12 distinct interventions in the first half of 2026 (public hearings, press releases, rallies, robocalls, a voter-canvasser hire, and two separate court petitions), versus a single media advisory in all of 2025. The union’s Facebook page has been almost wall-to-wall council content this year. They post a lot of AI slop, sometimes under their “Take Back Vancouver” brand:
The pattern at public hearings
Unite Here gets many of their own staff out to speak at any public hearing involving a hotel. At least 12 people on Unite Here’s payroll are showing up to speak at public hearings, and only the 4 most senior officers ever disclose that they’re speaking on behalf of Unite Here (sometimes). Everyone else just describes themselves as “residents”, “workers”, and “taxpayers”.
| Local 40 staff/campaigner | Role | Disclosed affiliation? |
|---|---|---|
| Zailda Chan | President | Sometimes yes, sometimes no |
| Robert Demand | Secretary-Treasurer | Sometimes yes, sometimes no |
| Mike Biskar | Director | Yes |
| Michelle Travis | Research Director | Sometimes yes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), sometimes no |
| Gulzar Grewal | VP & Organizer | No |
| Matt De Marchi | Organizer | No |
| Fe Casas | Organizer | No (1, 2) |
| Felisha Perry | Organizer | No |
| Ronan Hannigan | Organizer | No (1, 2, 3) |
| Shaelyn Arnould | Organizer | No (1, 2) |
| Cristina Figueroa † | Campaign Researcher (contract) | No (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) |
| Naya Holers † | Campaigner | No (1, 2, 3) |
† Not on the published staff directory; their roles are from LinkedIn (1, 2).
And that’s just the staff, they are clearly getting a lot of members out to speak too. A wider cast of regulars (Steve Cashmore, Tori Cooper, Elfina Lambertus, Preet Sangha, and others) recurs across these unrelated hearings the same way, again presenting as Vancouver residents or “hospitality workers.”
Their speeches overlap a lot. Speaker after speaker lands on the same handful of points: the project is too big, it’s a “developer giveaway,” the community amenity contribution is inadequate (the figure “$1.38 million” gets quoted repeatedly), and almost word for word, many different speakers say that “council has already approved thousands of hotel rooms.” 5 speakers at the floatel hearing gave that line (one example), five times on May 5–7, and on June 2 three consecutive speakers open with “My understanding is that thousands of hotel rooms have already been approved” (transcript).
Candidly, I get the impression that many of their speakers have been coached to use up as much time as possible.
OK, so what?
It’s weird that one organization is investing so much time+money to influence municipal politics. Vancouver’s a relatively small town, nobody else is paying this many people $30/hr to collect 23,000 signatures:
It would be one thing if Unite Here were asking for better pay or working conditions, but instead they’re showing up and opposing anything hotel-related for a bajillion unrelated, dishonest reasons. They claim that they are suing to stop the “floatel” because of its impact on public views, but if you believe that I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Vancouver is the cultural and economic capital of BC, with many amenities that can’t be found elsewhere. I want friends and family to be able to visit here. I want people to be able to afford hotels near the hospitals that serve the entire province. I think it’s deeply unethical for any organization to put this much effort into making it harder and more expensive for people to visit Vancouver.
