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RMT mobilises to fight savage cuts at Trump’s golf resort

TRADE union campaigners have stepped up their fight to halt a jobs carnage at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort, where working conditions are being “bulldozed” during the pandemic. 

Workers at the US president’s flagship Scottish resort are fighting the prospect of more than 80 job losses in the coming weeks, with the RMT union highlighting concerns about the employer’s unwillingness to engage over the proposals. 

Consultation on a brutal package of measures ends on August 16. It involves axing jobs and other “savage” cuts to sick pay, working hours, pay enhancements, staff benefits and working conditions.

The RMT said that it was mobilising to defend workers from the “all-out assault.”

Senior assistant general secretary Mick Lynch said: “It is clear as day that these savage cuts at Trump Turnberry are nothing to do with Covid-19 and everything to do with casualising the workforce and kicking away their working conditions to jack up profits.

“RMT is demanding that the axe be lifted from above our members’ heads at Trump Turnberry and we are calling for public and political support for this campaign.”

The union has operated at Turnberry since its heyday as a railway hotel, but representatives say there is now little engagement from management, claiming bosses are “actively working against” the union. 

RMT regional organiser for Scotland Mick Hogg told the Star that management at the resort are simply “taking instructions from Trump” by making “drastic cuts and attacks on terms and conditions.” 

He said the US president’s consistent downplaying of the virus was at odds with his company’s insistence that jobs need cutting as a result of the pandemic. 

Mr Hogg said: “Initially it was in the region of 70 redundancies. That has increased, and it’s possible it could be increased further. 

“This is them clawing back hard-earned conditions that have been fought for over the years.”

Staff have been backed in their efforts by Scottish Labour’s Richard Leonard, who said there was “no excuse for Donald Trump to throw hard-working staff on Scotland’s dole queues.”

He said: “It is no surprise that the most right-wing US president in recent history wants to casualise his workforce but, especially during a national crisis, both the UK and Scottish governments have a duty to stand up for the workers.”

Trump International had not responded to the Star’s request for comment at the time of publishing.

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