{"id":2150,"date":"2014-11-06T16:35:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T16:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2014-11-06T16:35:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T16:35:30","slug":"major-step-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2150","title":{"rendered":"Major step forward"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Intercontinental Hotel Group failed to keep its promise to phase in the Living Wage, the hotel group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers, many of whom subsist on poverty wages in one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most expensive cities, weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to give in without a fight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Their\u00c2\u00a0 efforts are finally paying off following the latest day of action yesterday (November 5), when Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hotel branch gathered outside the IHG-owned Crowne Plaza in Blackfriars to put continued pressure on management to make good on its 2012 pledge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For the first time since an initial meeting facilitated by the TUC in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, management has agreed to meet face to face with Unite.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull explained the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hotel workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ongoing campaign was to get IHG back on track to do what it had already intended to after that initial meeting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe believed that as a consequence of that meeting over two years ago the company had committed not only to phasing in the London Living Wage, but to maintaining an ongoing and constructive dialogue with Unite,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur ongoing campaign has been to get the company back to a postion where it is honouring those commitments,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the latest demonstration on Wednesday, assistant general secretary Diana Holland hand-delivered a letter to IHG management, reminding them of their publically made promise, which received heavy media coverage at the time, to pay all of their workers at least the Living Wage within five years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two years later, many of IHG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sub-contracted workers are paid the legally binding minimum of \u00c2\u01416.50 an hour, while another significant minority of directly employed food and beverage assistants, room service personnel and luggage porters are barely above that at \u00c2\u01416.80.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turnbull said the union received a letter from IHG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head of HR operations, Europe. The letter noted,\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe would be happy to arrange a meeting with you to discuss our position further in order to ensure we are doing all we can to strengthen relations with our employees and their representatives.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turnbull argued that the ongoing campaign of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hotel branch was directly responsible for Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major breakthrough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is proof that when we are loud and visible and persistent we will get results,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Turnbull.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turnbull added that this is a vitally important first step in winning the pay and respect IHG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers deserve.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur objective remains to achieve trade union access and neutrality as well as on open and ongoing dialogue on issues such as the Living Wage,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Intercontinental Hotel Group failed to keep its promise to phase in the Living Wage, the hotel group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers, many of whom subsist on poverty wages in one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most expensive cities, weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to give in without a fight.   Their\u00c2\u00a0 efforts are finally paying off following the latest day of action […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[23],"wps_subtitle":"Breakthrough for Unite hotel workers","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2153,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}