Workers at the Accor Group's Ibis Tamarin hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, have been struggling for rights and recognition since their union was formed and legally registered in August 2012. Management's aggressive response to their efforts to claim their rights has now escalated.
In July this year and again in November, the union, affiliated to the national hotel and restaurant federation FSPM, submitted to management a list of demands, including issues around unpaid overtime, unfair distribution of the service charge on which employees rely, the conversion of contract workers' jobs to permanent positions and the start of long-delayed collective bargaining negotiations.
The management response was swift and brutal. On November 26, a contract worker was told her contract would not be renewed because she had joined the union. Two days later, the general manager warned two workers of a similar fate. In December the entire housekeeping department came under attack. Union members were told to resign from the union, and two union members were pressured to sign false statements dictated by management stating that they were forced to join the union and now regret their actions. Union members in housekeeping and in engineering have been victimized and harassed by their immediate superiors to resign their union membership. The union president remains unjustly suspended from work.
December 11 union rally for union rights and recognition at Accor's Ibis Tamarin Jakarta
Accor, whose brands include Ibis, Mercure, Sofitel and Novotel, has already become notorious for anti-union practices in Bénin (West Africa) and in Ontario, Canada. In December 2012 the government of France determined that Accor had violated international Guidelines [2] and instructed the company to quickly resolve these conflicts through good faith negotiations with the unions. The conflicts continue due to Accor's hostility to union rights. Now a new front has opened in Accor's anti-union offensive.