On The Situation of the Workers

In Hotels and Tourism

By The Trade Union of Workers in Tourism,

Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens

On October 29^th, the Trade Union of Workers in Tourism, Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens held a Press Conference in order to inform on the situation of the workers in the sector, as well as to answer to the arguments of the hotel owners, who in spite of their profits, they demand new sacrifices from the workers of the Tourism Sector. We believe the information from their press conference can be useful to workers in hotels from around the world, members of the TUI Hotour and in general of the workers who want information on the situation of the working class of Greece.

 Trade Union of Workers in Tourism, Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens

 Press Conference, October 29, 2014

 Introduction by the President of the Trade Union of Workers in Tourism, Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens

 Our trade union and several trade associations hold today’s press conference in order to discuss the 24-hour strike in the tourism and hotel industry and the national rally of PAME of November 1.

Today, we will present our opinion and goals and we will try to knock down each and every one of the arguments we hear lately about tourism and development. We will also reveal who are really behind the “success story”, how much they have benefited from the tremendous increase of profits in the travel industry and how much all the tourism and F&B businesses are really benefited.

We will specifically talk about everything that the “tourism insiders” have said and written lately, in order to reveal the truth that they shamelessly have tried to hide from the people.

This truth is concealed not only by the government and the employers, but also from those political powers that use tourism as a means in order to get their hands fast on the power that belongs to owners of major tourist businesses, among others. We say this because, even though SYRIZA is hypocritically opposed to SETE, the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, as a social partner, they reassure that they will not lay hands on the tourism mogul interests, making clear what kind of policy they will follow. Besides, mr Vernikos, the general secretary of SETE, stated in “Avgi” that “tourism unites us”, confirming our opinion on the role the official opposition plays today.

First of all, let’s mention what the hoteliers themselves said about this year. “This tourist year was a record year for us” was the statement of George Tsakiris, the president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels. And this is absolutely true, in our opinion, since by “us” he means several large hotel owners and big hotel groups. The fact that 53% of the profits of 2011 and 2012 was shared only among the 16.5% of almost 10,000 hotel units, tells us that for the next two years, the share was even bigger for the same large hotel groups. It is more than obvious that not everybody was benefited from the tourism increase.

Now, what happens with the people who work for this 16.5% of hotels? Let’s see how many people they employ and what are the current employment relations in the hotel industry. For example, 2,700 less people are permanent employees in the 20 biggest hotel units in Athens today, compared to 20 years ago, which is almost 40% down. Since July of 2012, 15% of the wage of those supposedly permanent employees was cut back. They cover their increased needs in staff with employees from sweatshop companies, one-day work contracts, as well as apprenticeship contracts and trainees from vocational training centres. Mr Kostas Pastos, the organizational secretary of our union and administrative member of the Hilton Athens Hotel employees union, is going to give us a better insight on the current situation in one of the biggest hotels in Greece.

 Intervention of Kostas Pastos, Secretary of Trade Union of Workers in Tourism, Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens, Member of the Board of the Hilton Athens Hotel Trade Union

 It is clear that the profits of several hotel units have increased not only thanks to the flourishing tourism, but also thanks to how employment relations and wage levels have changed over the years. The next great big myth a visitor is called to live in Greece is the one that suggests that tourism is a national matter, since it is a source of development and primary surplus, and also contributes an important 20% to Greece’s GDP. According to Andreas Andreadis, the president of SETE, the tourism industry generated more than 100,000 new working positions. We know what happened with 20,000 of them. They were part of the programmes that SETE benefited from, and which were paid by the Greek people and not the hotel owners. As regards the rest 80,000 working positions, and that is if the numbers they give are true, we are sure that they are talking about trainees from public and private schools of tourism studies, who get paid less than 300 euros per month, and about thousands of students from Eastern Europe countries who supposedly come to Greece for training, and also get paid 300 euros per month, or even less.

 George Chatzoudas is the general secretary of the Metropolitan Hotel employees union. The hotel employed dozens of young people through the SETE voucher funding programmes. Mr Chatzoudas will explain to us why those programmes gave false hopes to those who thought they would have a permanent job after that.

After George Chatzoudas, Spiros Petrolekas, the president of the Royal Olympic Hotel employees union will tell us how did the union handled the employers’ try to use trainees in the permanent staff working posts.

 Intervention of George Chatzoudas, General Secretary Of The Metropolitan Hotel Workers Union and of Spiros Petrolekas, President Of The Royal Olympic Hotel Employees Union

 The figures that SETE published suggest a 19% increase in the earnings of IKA for 2014. This has got nothing to do with an increase in employment, but with the fact that employers started providing insurance to a number of employees, something they avoided for the majority of their staff for years. The same figures suggest that the average gross salary is 1,000 euros and the average net salary 840 euros. Of course, they do not tell us how many hours an employee has to work per month in order to get this salary. Let’s start with hotel staff, which is about 100,000 employees. 80% of them are seasonal staff. They work for over 8 hours a day, without getting not even one day off. This means they get paid 840 euros a month for 10 hours of work per day, 7 days of work per week and 30 days of work per month, for four or five months per year, which is 3,360 euros per year. For the people who work in the F&B industry and who are estimated to be more than 200,000, there is no collective agreement. Gross salary is 586 euros, net salary is a little over 480 euros and there is no insurance for 10 or more hours of work per day.

 George Mouchos is the president of the south division of our union and an F&B employee. He will tell us what the majority of the F&B employees is experiencing.

 Intervention of George Mouchos, President Of The South Division Of the Trade Union of Workers in Tourism, Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens

 After all that has been said so far, we understand that this kind of tourism cannot be a national matter for the employees of the industry, neither in times of crisis nor in times of development. We didn’ t have much to lose anyway. Tourism doesn’t seem to be a national matter for the Greek people either, since they cannot afford to go away for a vacation. According to Consumers Institute (INKA), 75% of the people cannot afford a vacation at all, 23% manage to go away for only three days a year and a mere 2% can afford a 20-day stay in luxurious hotels for their vacation. They say that tourism will get us out of the crisis. Now that is a myth. The memorandums intrude more and more into our lives and the state continues to rob the working class and the poor, while large hotel owners enjoy generous tax reliefs, as if they were a sensitive social group. They also say that a generous amount of the travel industry earnings will pay a part of Greece’s debt. Not one Greek worker is responsible for this debt, along with the ship owners, the bankers and the large business owners, as they are trying to convince as. They make double and triple money, in times of crisis and in times of development, and they are ready to take advantage of every funding programme available. There is another thing we would like to highlight. The Media and the employers’ organisations often present the employees of big hotel chains as favored employees, who work in a nice and safe working environment, because they are working in luxurious hotel units. But the truth is far from that.

 Babis Ntotsikas is the vice president of our union and works as an electrician. He will reveal how “safe” is a luxurious hotel for both its staff and its guests.

 Intervention of Babis Ntotsikas, Vice President Of the Trade Union of Workers in Tourism, Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens

 This Saturday, our sector has proclaimed a 24-hour strike, and we declare that there cannot be work peace as long as there is exploitation. The negotiations between the Greek Food and Tourism Federation and the hotel owners are very far from the needs of the workers in our sector. The 1% wage increase in the sectoral collective agreement of hotel staff shows that they are shameless. We ask those who present it as a success, trying to conceal the truth, to tell us how many hotels follow this shameful collective agreement and how many workers “enjoy” this 1% wage increase. For the region of Attica, we claim a sectoral collective agreement with the wage levels of 2012, which are the minimum in order for a hotel employee to live decently. Even the Athens Hotel Association statistics are in agreement with our demands. During the first seven months of 2014, hotels had a 22.3% increase in bookings, compared to the 2013 bookings, a 4.9% increase in the average room price and a 28.3% increase in the RevPAR.

In the F&B sector, we also claim sectoral collective agreement with the terms and wages of 2012, before its termination by the restaurateurs. According to SETE, 528,000 more tourists arrived in the Athens International Airport during the first seven months of 2014, which is translated in 390,000 more overnight stays and 142.8 million euros for Athens’ economy. The restaurateurs have absolutely no excuse, since a big part of those earnings ended up in their businesses as well. We unite forces with all the organisations and trade unions which responded to PAME’s calling for the two-month campaign of action and the national rally of PAME in November 1^st.

 Our demands are:

•  Stable work, more working positions

• No dismissals

• Recruitments in all sectors, in full-time and permanent posts

• No more vocational training centres and NGO sweatshops

• All funds available for businesses, given through the Manpower Employment Organisation, should cover the needs of the unemployed

• Annulment of all EU treaties that allow the free movement of workers

Until our fight manages to cancel all employment programmes, we demand:

• 751 euros minimum wage for all employees that should be paid every month from the first month.

• Benefits and paid overtime and night shift work

• Unemployment allowance once the programme is completed

• Free public transport card for means of transport from and to work

• 2-day leave per month

• Immediate protective measures for people who work in unhealthy environment through employment programmes

• Democratic freedoms and trade union rights for all employed people through programmes

• Pensionable working period in all employment, internship or apprenticeship programmes

For employees who work as interns, we demand:

• Presence of specialised supervisors in order to train students on their field, who are currently employed by businesses as almost free staff

• Paid internships, according to the collective agreement

• Free transport or stay in boarding homes of each school

• Measures of safety and hygiene

Measures for protecting the unemployed:

• Unemployment benefit for all unemployed persons, without terms and preconditions, throughout all the unemployment period

• 600 euros unemployment benefit

• All unemployment time should be state and employer-covered and considered as pensionable

• Full and free healthcare without terms and preconditions for all unemployed persons and their families

• Unemployment benefit and other benefits for occupational workers or former small business owners with simpler terms

We insist on demands regarding the families of the unemployed or the underemployed:

• No foreclosures of houses of unemployed

• 30% lower tariffs for power, water, et.c. All actions of intentional water, power or telephone grid outage should stop

• Free transport with the unemployment card

• Interest and loan payment freeze during all period of unemployment or underemployment

• State-covered housing benefit

• Free school supplies for the children of the unemployed

• No unemployed parent should have to pay for their children’s studies

• All children of unemployed parents should be accepted in day nurseries 

For the revitalization of the labor movement, in order for us to give a decisive answer to the EU, the government and big business groups. We will walk this path even faster, we will intensify our activity and fight and we will meet again on the upcoming strike, on November 27.

Trade Union of Workers in Tourism,

Hotels and Food & Beverage Industry of Athens

October 29, 2014