Argentina

With Eduardo Rodríguez Calderón of the ILO

Spanish Hotel Chains Conference

A milestone in hotel

and tourism sector organization

 

The ILO’s Latin American and Caribbean Regional Specialist in Workers’ Education, Eduardo Rodríguez Calderón, participated in the Conference on “Spanish Hotel Chains in Latin America and Union Rights,” where he gave a presentation on the concept of “decent work” and its social, economic, and political implications. In dialogue with Sirel, he highlighted the most important aspects of the meeting.

 

“From the point of view of the ILO, this Conference marks a milestone, as the sector represented here has several problems connected with decent labor, and the conference closed with a joint working program, with greater unity, and with tasks assigned to each union,” Rodríguez Calderón said.

 

“Most importantly, all these efforts will be coordinated through the IUF’s Regional Office, Rel-UITA, and the HRCT Group –he added. For instance, it was determined that one of the first actions will be to contact the heads of these hotel and tourism transnational corporations, with the aim of reaching framework agreements where the stakeholders will clearly establish the responsibility that entails observing the workers’ union rights.”

 

“Participants –the ILO specialist continued– also examined the relationship between the sector’s activity and sustainable development, climate change, and the environment in general, which has involved challenges and commitments for workers.”

 

“It is also clear that labor organizations must use all the experience they have to achieve a higher rate of unionization. The report presented by Rel-UITA shows that progress has been made in this sense, but there is still a lot to be done, as some countries do not have even a single union in this sector. The first task, then, will be to change this situation, and in those places where unions do exist, the task will be to extend any improvements in working conditions obtained for unionized workers to outsourced workers, and to unionize the outsourced workers in order to make the principle of equal pay for equal work a reality, as in many cases the same companies that outsource work are the companies that act as subcontracting agencies, and at other times these are secretly financed by the main companies,” he concluded.

 

  

From Buenos Aires, Carlos Amorín

Rel-UITA

october 8, 2008

 

 

 

Foto: Patricia Iglesias

 

Volver a Portada

 

 

  UITA - Secretaría Regional Latinoamericana - Montevideo - Uruguay

Wilson Ferreira Aldunate 1229 / 201 - Tel. (598 2) 900 7473 -  902 1048 -  Fax 903 0905