Trade union rights violations at the Warsaw Marriott/Union leader assaulted

Posted to the IUF website 28-Feb-2002

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The hotel industry branch union of Solidarnosc has requested international support in the struggle against union busting at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel.

On February 14, Andrzej Jakubiak, chair of the union at the Warsaw Marriott, was beaten by hotel security staff and had to be treated in hospital for a broken nose. Summoned to the office of the human resources manager, Brother Jakubiak was being escorted by two security staff who manhandled him and pushed him into a hotel lift. His attempt to free himself from their grip resulted in the assault.

The incident on February 14 was only part of a campaign of harassment of union leaders and intimidation of workers carried out by hotel management since June 2001 when the Solidarnosc enterprise union at the Marriott Hotel was legally registered. About 10% of the 750 workers at the hotel are organised by the Solidarnosc union, which is the only union on the premises.

IUF-affiliated organisations familiar with the Marriott Corporation and its anti-union ideology and activities will recognise the tactics employed by the management of the Warsaw hotel to attack the union and the principle of union representation: intimidation of workers to discourage them from joining the union, obligatory attendance at meetings at which unions are presented as scapegoats for the company�s woes, coercion of workers to sign statements distancing themselves from union initiatives. To protect its members from harassment, the union has kept their names secret from management; its leaders, however, have been demoted to low-paying jobs, obliged to work night shifts for extended periods of time and have been suspended from duties from time to time without explanation. Many of these practices are in violation of Polish labour law and the national labour board has carried out several inspections in the hotel.

On February 13, an article appeared in a Warsaw daily about poor working conditions and labour relations at the Warsaw Marriott. It was most likely in this connection that the union chair was summoned to the office of the HR manager the following day. And it was clearly the heightened tension at the workplace and the hostile environment created by management which contributed to the security staff�s assault on one of their fellow workers.

We are asking you to show your support for the Marriott union and Solidarnosc in their struggle against victimisation and rights violations and in their efforts to develop positive industrial relations at the Warsaw Marriott by sending a message of protest to local management. For your convenience, we enclose a model letter based on the one we have sent. Please feel free to alter it and to add your own comments.

Model letter

Mr. Richard Lyon
General Manager
Warsaw Marriott Hotel
Fax: + 48 22 629 8810

Dear Mr. Lyon,

I am writing on behalf of (name of your union), an affiliate of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers� Associations (IUF), to express our concern over trade union rights violations at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel.

We understand that since June 2001, when the NSZZ Solidarnosc-affiliated union at the Marriott Hotel was legally registered, management has been committing violations against trade union rights, union members have been subjected to victimisation and harassment and hotel workers have been subjected to intimidation. The heightened level of tension in the hotel created by management�s hostility toward the union has resulted recently in an outrageous incident of assault against a trade union leader.

We urge you to take action to restore a positive working environment in your hotel, to establish labour-management relations which are based on mutual respect and to ensure that the Marriott Hotel Workers Union is free to exercise its right to organise as laid down in ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which the government of the country in which you are operating has ratified.

Yours sincerely,

cc: Mr. J.W. Marriott Jr., CEO, Marriott International
Fax: + 1 301 380 3969

Please forward copies to the International Department of NSZZ Solidarnosc:

Fax: + 48 58 308 44 82
E-mail: [email protected]
And to the IUF:

Fax: + 41 22 793 22 38
E-mail: [email protected]

Thank you for your solidarity and support