7 Jun 2004


The focus of the protest is the treatment meted out to union members at the Raffles Hotel in Angkor where, according to the International Union of Food and Hotel Workers (IUF), the management looted the union offices and tore up the legal certificate recognising the union and sacked three hundred workers.

"It cannot be right for hotel workers and their trade union to be treated with such apparent arrogance and hostility," said Brian Revell, the T&G national organiser for food and agriculture, whose trade group includes hotel and restaurant staff. "If it helps our colleagues in Cambodia to highlight their plight we're more than pleased to show our solidarity."

According to information given to the T&G and posted on the IUF website, there is a very tough fight over trade union rights in Cambodia. After looting the union offices in Angkor, the Raffles management are said to have created a yellow union, in effect an organisation which would simply do the bidding of the company with no questions asked, and signed an "agreement" with it. The IUF is also lobbying the TUC for their support and has raised the issue of UK government support, through the Department for International Development, for their help in funding the training of replacement workers to some of the hotels in the conflict.

T&G members will be demonstrating outside the Howard Hotel as this is owned by the Swissotel Group which is part of Raffles. Union activists will be handing out leaflets to highlight the anti-union actions in Cambodia from 1.00pm tomorrow (Tuesday 8th June).

ENDS

For further information, please call the T&G Press Office on 020 7611 2550/49


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