Hospitality workers are urging the City of Vancouver to schedule new public hearings on housing in the city.

The union Unite Here Local 40 says that it submitted a petition to City Hall, asking for a new public hearing process on housing affordability and the challenges of living in the city.

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It argues that the previous hearings from earlier this year were difficult to follow for many of its members.

Union president Zailda Chan says that language barriers, technical difficulties, and confusion during the hearings prevented some from fully taking part.

“Many of our members are from their immigrant communities whose first language is not English,” Chan told 1130 NewsRadio.

“And so, they spoke in their languages; they had their own translators ready. It was inaccessible. There were technical difficulties in having their message translated.”

The meetings in question took place on May 5 and May 7. In both public hearings, City Council listened to proposals about housing agreements on Arbutus Street, Broughton Street, West 1st Avenue, and Main Street.

“We don’t expect these kinds of barriers to happen in this kind of city. Their voices were not heard that day. They were muted.”

The union is calling out what it perceives as an unfair process and hopes that its petition is successful.

“I’m here because I support their petition to allow a process that should be democratic to immigrant people. In the meantime, you have counsel listening very clearly to billionaire developers who are passing and want to use a lot of the land in the city for high luxury rentals and hotels,” Chan said.

In a message to 1130 NewsRadio, City Hall acknowledged that the petition was received but that it would not provide any further comment.

– With files from Raynaldo Suarez.