FOUNDING CONGRESS OF THE WFTU TRADE UNION INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF WORKERS IN TOURISM AND HOTEL SECTOR, Athens, Greece, December 1-2, 2009
27 November 2009
The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the All Workers Militant Front (PAME) are organizing the Founding Congress of the WFTU Trade Union International Organization of Workers in Tourism and Hotel Sector, which will take place in Athens, Greece on December 1 and 2, 2009.
Overview of the Tourism and Hotel branch
The Founding Congress of the WFTU Trade Union International Organization of the Workers in Tourism and Hotel Sector comes at a critical time for the trade union movement, which has to face the economic crisis.
Due to the economic crisis, the situation of workers throughout the world, including the developed countries, has deteriorated. Big capital and governments that serve the capital want workers to pay the consequences of the crisis.
Capitalism is only interested in capital accumulation, in more profit for the corporations, leading to environmental destruction, more hunger, poverty and misery, even more stealing and corruption at all levels, increased exploitation of workers. For them it means job uncertainty, lack of rights and hard work to generate more profits for the capital.
The capitalist system is hard and in times of crisis it becomes even more aggressive.
Therefore, today a quick and coordinated response of the class oriented trade union movement, through mobilisations, struggles at workplaces, everywhere on the globe, is more than ever necessary.
In recent years international tourism has witnessed a spectacular development, in many cases destructive for the environment and without the necessary infrastructure. At the global level, it has lead to a concetration of this activity in the hands of the multinationals that control the stay, moves, alimentary habits and leisure of the customers. These multinational own hotel facilities, the beaches, ports, aviation and other transportation companies etc. A typical example of this is the situation in Europe, where a small number of Tour Operators control more than 85% of tourist activities with huge profits for them. It is estimated that tourism produces about 6% of the World GDP and employs 7% of the global workforce, offering mostly temporary and insecure jobs.
The global capitalist crisis particularly affects this area of economic activity, having as main victims the workers and the small-scale family hotel and food businesses. There is a large number of job losses, drastic reduction of permanent jobs with a predominance of flexible forms of employment, large reduction in annual salaries and serious attack on social security rights for workers.
In this context, trade unions in the Tourism and Hotel sector ought to be well organized and to strengthen their class oriented consciousness. Only a class oriented trade union movement can effectively contribute to the organized efforts for the defence of workers’ rights.
This Congress will take place in a country where trade unions have fought hard and won struggles to defend and extend the rights of Hotel workers.