Final project blog post

Workers of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto and they went on strike because of poor working conditions as well as working without a contract for extended periods of time.

Rhetorical devices used from their website:

• Repetition: Repetition is seen throughout the entire website. They talk about the issues that are currently happening and you keep seeing “help our fight” or “please support us”.
• Arrangement (climax) https://unitehere.org/fairmont-royal-york-workers-on-strike-in-toronto/: Throughout this article they arrange the wording to captivate the reader. They do this by stating what the strike will be about, where and when it will happen, and then finally they reel you in by saying there will be celebrities there and then listing out all of the speakers that will be there.
• Facts/Truth: Facts and truth are used in the online media aspect of this campaign to gain attention and support from others. They state why they are on strike, and it’s for reasons such as how they get treated and how much they get underpaid in comparison to other hotel companies.
• Values (universal): Values is a big part of the way that those on strike are able to gain support from those who are not involved with the strike directly. Both online and in real life use values by basically asking you to put yourself in their shoes and asking if you would want to be in that situation. They are asking you to help them fight against a much bigger opponent and you should help them fight because we are the good guys and those above them are the bad guys. They give many reasons why they should be helped and like previously stated, the way they word how they display their lives make it seem like you are being put in their shoes and that makes it easier for someone to want to support the cause.
• Presence (repetition): Same as repetition
• Justice: (See real life)

Rhetorical Devices from actual strike:

• Repetition: Repetition is also used in the real life aspect of the strike. They repeat phrases over and over again during the strike to try and make their message stick in the heads of those in higher employment.
• Facts/Truth: Same thing goes for the actual strike, during the strike the participants would speak about why they were on strike and give the same reasoning as the website stated, because they would have to withstand increased workloads, shift cutbacks (less money), and a dangerous work environment.
• Values (Universal): (See above)
• Presence (repetition): Same as repetition
• Justice: Ahhh justice such a tough word to breakdown and see who is in the right and in the wrong, but don’t worry they make it very clear for you to see. The whole point of the strike is to be treated fairly. They want the pay, working conditions, treatment that they feel they deserve. Justice has to have another group to go off of and they give other hotel companies which they base this on. They compare the quality of their hotel to others and how much they get paid for the amount of hours they work and how much work they must do within those shifts. They also look at the amount of hours they are able to work and compare that with the other hotels.