Trade Unions in the Hotel and Catering Industry: The Views of Hotel Managers

Abstract

Given the principal characteristics of hotel and catering industry employment – low pay, low job security, high labour turnover, often arbitrary management – it is a matter of some interest that the industry is unionized to only a limited extent. Offers a brief summary of the principal reasons advanced for explaining low unionization in the industry before proceeding to focus on the attitudes of hotel managers towards these explanations. Reports research based on interviews with managers in Scotland, during which individuals were asked to respond to a range of points with a view to ascertaining the continuing relevance or otherwise of the findings of previous research. Principal findings are that a tension exists between a general, if reluctant, acceptance of the need, by managers, for union representation in the industry and a belief in their own managerial efficacy which makes unions irrelevant to their particular circumstances.

Industrial Relations in Hotels and Catering: Neglect and Paradox?

“…(1979); Airey and Chopping (1980); Macfarlane (1982a, b); Johnson and Mignot (1982); Johnson (1983); Mars and Nicod (1984); Jameson andJohnson (1984, 1989); Riley (1985Riley ( , 1991; Gabriel (1988);and Mitchell (1988). Alternatively, others have identified some positive indicators, including Mars et al (1979); Shamir (1981); Croney (1988a), Gabriel (1988); Lennon and Wood (1989); Macaulay and Wood (1992); Aslan and Wood (1993). 10.…”

Hotel employees' views on fairness, well‐being and collective representation in times of the coronavirus crisis: Evidence from Poland

“…Crucially, it is hotel managers who seem to be particularly inclined towards unitarism. To quote Aslan and Wood (1993, p. 62), ‘More so than their counterparts in other industries, hotel and catering managers see themselves as the major source of authority in their units, largely because they are normally allowed considerable latitude in the running of their establishments’.…”

“…This study contributes to the literature on hotel employees' well‐being and the attractiveness of hotel employment (e.g., Ariza‐Montes et al, 2018; Ashton, 2018; Su & Swanson, 2019; Yavas et al, 2018) in the wider context of organisational ethics (Greenwood, 2013). At the same time, it makes contributions to the body of research on collective representation in the hotel industry, which draws mainly on evidence from Anglo‐Saxon countries (Aslan & Wood, 1993; Ioannou & Dukes, 2021; Lowery et al, 2019; Macaulay & Wood, 1992; Piso, 2003; Wood, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, there are no many studies focusing on unionisation in Polish hotels.…”

Perspectives on hospitality industry trade unionism in the UK and beyond

“…Some evidence suggests that in the past a simplistic ethos prevailed in which "good" managers created a positive working environment, obviating the need for a trade union presence, and workers agitating for union membership were labelled as "troublemakers". In unionised hotels, it was additionally not unusual for managers to deny that a union presence impinged upon the management of their unit (Aslan & Wood, 1993;Croney, 1988) which, if true, makes managerial opposition to unions even more difficult to understand.…”