Hotel employees distribute leaflets to tourists: “Welcome to the beautiful island of exploitation”
hotel employees
05 Sep 2022
/ 20:24
CORFU. Hotel employees work stoppage at Louis Ionian Sun hotel.
The employees of the Louis Ionian Sun hotel welcomed an executive of the company who arrived in Corfu from the headquarters in Cyprus with a work stoppage.
The Corfu Hotel & Tourist Catering Employees Union said that this is a warning for the company's refusal to meet with the employees' representatives, in order to safeguard the employees' rights in case the planned renovation of the company's hotels in Corfu is delayed, as well as to agree on actual wage increases and to establish labour standards to ensure humane working conditions.
Along with the work stoppage, employees at the Ionian Sun hotel and members of the Union protested at the airport, distributing leaflets in English and German with the following text:
"CORFU HOTEL & TOURIST CATERING EMPLOYEES UNION
Dear visitors,
we welcome you to Corfu, the beautiful and hospitable island. The island of the exploitation of employees but also the island of labour struggles, protests and strikes. We wish you a wonderful holiday.
We would like to apologise in advance if some days of your holiday you will not receive the expected services and there may be some inconvenience due to our protests and strikes in hotels and the tourism sector in general.
It is not the employees who are responsible for this but rather the employers who, along with the tour operators, receive huge amounts of money from you to provide you with high quality services, but all they care about is increasing their profits.
Hotels and tourism businesses choose to operate with a very small number of employees - to which the government shows tolerance - so that they don't spend much on staff and increase their profits.
This results in employees in the tourism sector working many hours a day at a fast and exhausting pace with no breaks and no days off. Very often employees become ill or are injured due to the hard work and then the problems become acute.
Exhausted from hard work, employees are unable to provide the quality of service that you have paid for and are entitled to. To truly understand the problem, you should see the numbers:
In 2011, Corfu's hotels had 5,000 employees, while Corfu's visitors were about 600,000.
In 2022 the number of employees remains the same, while visitors will exceed 1,700,000.
The same and worse happens in all tourism professions with the most extreme example being that of the bus drivers who, at the risk of their own and your life, work for more than 12 hours a day. For everyone's safety, ask the police to check the bus drivers to see if they have exceeded their working hours.
In 2011, hotel employees' wages were reduced by 15% and are at the level they were in 2007.
Today hotel workers receive a monthly salary of €800 and work for only 6 months. With daily work, they get about €1,000 for 6 months, while the other months they are unemployed. The annual income of an employee of the tourism sector is about €6,000, i.e. €500 per month. That is what you pay for one night in an accommodation establishment.
The employees are demanding wage increases and the hoteliers and other employers will not even discuss it.
This is why we are striking and protesting and will continue to fight today, tomorrow and every year until the employers understand that we are not slaves. We are fighting for:
- Wage increases
- Humane working conditions with better working hours, breaks and days off
- Recruitment of staff
- Health and safety measures in the workplace
- Unemployment benefit for the months we don't work
Support our struggle in any way you can:
-Protest to your tour operator
-Protest to any organisation you like
Tour operators exploit visitors and employees to increase their profits.
NO MORE EXPLOITATION - WE WILL NOT BE SLAVES IN THE 21ST CENTURY''
The employees of the tourism sector will continue to protest daily with new forms of struggle.
The Corfu Hotel & Tourist Catering Employees Union said that this is a warning for the company's refusal to meet with the employees' representatives, in order to safeguard the employees' rights in case the planned renovation of the company's hotels in Corfu is delayed, as well as to agree on actual wage increases and to establish labour standards to ensure humane working conditions.
Along with the work stoppage, employees at the Ionian Sun hotel and members of the Union protested at the airport, distributing leaflets in English and German with the following text:
"CORFU HOTEL & TOURIST CATERING EMPLOYEES UNION
Dear visitors,
we welcome you to Corfu, the beautiful and hospitable island. The island of the exploitation of employees but also the island of labour struggles, protests and strikes. We wish you a wonderful holiday.
We would like to apologise in advance if some days of your holiday you will not receive the expected services and there may be some inconvenience due to our protests and strikes in hotels and the tourism sector in general.
It is not the employees who are responsible for this but rather the employers who, along with the tour operators, receive huge amounts of money from you to provide you with high quality services, but all they care about is increasing their profits.
Hotels and tourism businesses choose to operate with a very small number of employees - to which the government shows tolerance - so that they don't spend much on staff and increase their profits.
This results in employees in the tourism sector working many hours a day at a fast and exhausting pace with no breaks and no days off. Very often employees become ill or are injured due to the hard work and then the problems become acute.
Exhausted from hard work, employees are unable to provide the quality of service that you have paid for and are entitled to. To truly understand the problem, you should see the numbers:
In 2011, Corfu's hotels had 5,000 employees, while Corfu's visitors were about 600,000.
In 2022 the number of employees remains the same, while visitors will exceed 1,700,000.
The same and worse happens in all tourism professions with the most extreme example being that of the bus drivers who, at the risk of their own and your life, work for more than 12 hours a day. For everyone's safety, ask the police to check the bus drivers to see if they have exceeded their working hours.
In 2011, hotel employees' wages were reduced by 15% and are at the level they were in 2007.
Today hotel workers receive a monthly salary of €800 and work for only 6 months. With daily work, they get about €1,000 for 6 months, while the other months they are unemployed. The annual income of an employee of the tourism sector is about €6,000, i.e. €500 per month. That is what you pay for one night in an accommodation establishment.
The employees are demanding wage increases and the hoteliers and other employers will not even discuss it.
This is why we are striking and protesting and will continue to fight today, tomorrow and every year until the employers understand that we are not slaves. We are fighting for:
- Wage increases
- Humane working conditions with better working hours, breaks and days off
- Recruitment of staff
- Health and safety measures in the workplace
- Unemployment benefit for the months we don't work
Support our struggle in any way you can:
-Protest to your tour operator
-Protest to any organisation you like
Tour operators exploit visitors and employees to increase their profits.
NO MORE EXPLOITATION - WE WILL NOT BE SLAVES IN THE 21ST CENTURY''
The employees of the tourism sector will continue to protest daily with new forms of struggle.
