Hotel workers' victory
by Rohan Gowland Hotel workers cheered with joy outside a Sydney hotel last Friday, when a planned strike was over before it had really begun. That morning the hotel had agreed not to contract out the workers' jobs. Unionists and supporters applauded the workers, whose smiles told it all: they were ordinary workers in a vulnerable industry, but they'd stuck together to keep what they had and they won. The atmosphere was charged with the feeling of solidarity. A wide range of unions had turned up to participate in the picket, which turned into a victory celebration. "It's basically about an anti-union campaign", Rebecca Reilly, Branch Organiser, Leisure and Tourism Division of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMU), representing the hotel workers, told The Guardian. The union has been trying to recruit and organise workers in the major hotels. They have held a number of successful protests against non-union agreements and the stripping of their award. "These workers, at Mirvac's Hyde Park Plaza Hotel, had not long ago been offered a non-union agreement", Ms Reilly said. "The room attendants stuck together and went around to other departments in the hotels and explained to the other workers how the non-union agreements would reduce their wages and conditions." As a consequence, the workers voted against the non-union agreement. "We view that the management then saw the house-keeping department as the `trouble-makers' and decided that they'd just get rid of them, because they still wanted to go on with their agenda of reducing wages and conditions." Management told the housekeeping workers they would be contracted out. They would no longer be employed by the hotel, but by a private company called Australasian Housekeepers. There was no discussion with the workers on this decision. This came a shock to the workers, most of whom have worked at the hotel for many years; one has been there for 35 years. Ms Reilly said that the fact that the workers are predominantly from non- English-speaking backgrounds made the situation more difficult for them to understand and contributed to their sense of insecurity, fear and confusion about what the changes would actually mean. Together, the union and workers at first convinced management to talk to them, but management "only met once, lied to the workers, and then wouldn't meet again". Then management tried something else: when cleaning the rooms, the room attendants are alone in the room. What management did was get three managers, plus one they flew in from Melbourne, to go into those rooms and try to intimidate individual workers into signing. "They said if they didn't sign then they wouldn't have a job next week." The workers were "extremely frightened" by all this but it still didn't work. Next, management in "American style" told them "so-and-so signed, so you better sign because everyone else is signing". But, said Ms Reilly, the workers "stayed strong and didn't sign anything at all". The union continued to try to negotiate with the hotel and the workers planned for last Friday's rally. "The workers had had enough." The night before the strike, they attended the Labor Council meeting. The Labor Council issued a media release advertising the rally and warning that "this could be another MUA". The strength of the workers and the solid backing of the labour movement scared the employers who, three hours after the strike began, came down to the picket and said they wanted to talk. The workers elected representatives, including union reps, to meet with the company. The employers agreed not to contract out the workers' jobs. The hotel would have an opportunity to explain the "benefits" of contracting out, but if the workers still didn't want it then it would not take place. This was not an isolated victory. In its broader context, it is part of the struggle against a planned and concerted anti-union agenda by employers and the Federal Government. That battle still continues.