“By working collectively, even in the most difficult circumstances, hospitality staff can improve their lives up and down the country.”
By Ben Liao
At the Manchester Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, workers are on strike against disgraceful union busting by their employer, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).
This incredible action is the first ever recorded hospitality strike in North-West England and represents a major challenge to the exploitative practices of hospitality employers everywhere.
Hardly short on cash, IHG is one of the world’s biggest hotel chains. Last financial year it reported a 13% increase in operating profit to $1.27 billion.
Despite this, workers at Manchester Kimpton Clocktower are suffering from issues like low pay, chronic understaffing, and a lack of safe transport to and from work late at night.
Workers at the hotel have been fighting for their trade union, Unite, to be recognised, but IHG has completely refused to engage in good faith.
IHG have even gone as far as sacking two union reps on unfair charges, including one who was ridiculously suspended for 37 days for allegedly failing to charge for a single pint. Workers believe they were sacked for taking part in trade union activities, as these escalations came days after a collective grievance was submitted.
The two central demands of their strike are simple:
- To have their union recognised by their employer
- An end to union busting practices
IHG’s attempt to stop the Manchester Kimpton Clocktower hotel workers from exercising their most basic rights to form a union is symptomatic of the shocking employment practices in hospitality.
In hospitality, a total lack of job security, low pay, shifts being cancelled last minute, and a general disregard for workers’ rights, amongst many other issues, plunge huge numbers of people into poverty.
These are issues that can only be tackled when workers come together collectively. A big part of the reason pay and conditions in hospitality are so poor is its workforce’s low union membership.
By fighting for their right to be recognised as a union, the striking staff at Manchester Kimpton Clocktower hotel are blazing a trail for workers in the rest of the hospitality sector.
This dispute is crucial, a historic union drive. If won, it can send shockwaves into other hospitality workplaces. Fights like this can inspire a new generation of trade unionists.
The Manchester hotel workers are already doing just that. This dispute is overwhelmingly being led by young workers, most of whom are in their early to mid-twenties. Their bravery to organise in a workplace which, less than 8 months ago, effectively had no trade union presence at all, is admirable.
Unite Hospitality Organiser Fraser McGuire said, ‘Militant industrial organising can succeed in any sector. The commitment of these young workers building power in some of the hardest possible conditions shows what the trade union movement is capable of..’
IHG is trying everything to crush this historic union drive because they know just how important it could be.
Let the Manchester hotel workers’ fight for unionisation be an inspiration to us all. By working collectively, even in the most difficult circumstances, hospitality staff can improve their lives up and down the country.
- The Red Weekly Column will appear regularly on Labour Outlook from one of our regular socialist contributors.
- You can support the strikers by signing the petition against union busting at Manchester Kimpton Clocktower and donating to their strike fund.
- Ben Liao is a socialist and anti-racist activist. You can follow him on Twitter/X.
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