WORKERS at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel on Manchester’s Oxford Road are ready to down tools after months of campaigning for union recognition and a flurry of assaults on workplace reps.

On Tuesday March 3, 12 workers marched into the HR ofice and demanded their voices be heard by a multibillion-dollar global company. Barely a week later, the first union representative was fired. A week later, a second union representative was suspended for 35 days before also getting the sack. Now a third faces disciplinary action and will most likely lose their job as well. In what is, at least to us, an egregious display of union victimisation, IHG continues to deny any wrongdoing.

But beyond the assaults on the right to union activities, workers balloted to strike over long standing issues of unfair contracts that ofer no job security and last-minute rotas that make planning a life outside of work impossible.

Any hospitality worker can relate to these problems, and all bosses have to ofer are less than novel platitudes in response. Niceties such as “this is just hospitality,” or “the business needs must come first,” only help to normalise a culture where workers are made to believe no alternative is possible.

It is true that the hospitality industry has rarely ever served the needs of those who work within it, but it is also true that these practices no longer have to continue, in what we believe are some of the worst working conditions in this country.

While business needs are important, we believe that it is in the interest of businesses to respect the rights of their employees and provide safety and dignity at work. We would also argue that the needs of the business should not ever come before the needs of human beings.

Workers prepare to strike against the backdrop of a city struck with rising rents and a cost-of living crisis. Wages fail to keep up with inflation, and its workers on precarious, low-wage and low-hour contracts are at the most risk. With 2.3 million working in the hospitality industry, change cannot come soon enough. This is why Kimpton members joined Unite the Union and began campaigning for change. They follow a recent wave of strikes across our sector by comrades who, over the past two years, have gone on strike at multiple venues all around the UK, from cafes to cinemas and hotels.

Let the Kimpton strikes show people across Manchester and the nation that we don’t have to put up with poor working conditions and that change is worth fighting for.

Solidarity to all striking workers, from our home to theirs.

The workers will start their strike at 5pm today (Tuesday) at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, Oxford Road, Manchester.