Union action in Vilamoura as three sacked hotel workers trigger demonstration

As the Algarve’s hoteliers gear up for a record-breaking New Year’s Eve across the Algarve, the region’s hotel workers’ trade union organised a high-profile demonstration in Vilamoura on Thursday.

The dismissal of three employees from the Crowne Plaza Hotel has been slammed by union leaders as "illegal," and part of a general trend of "increasing employer repression In recent months."

The three sacked workers, trade union leaders, activists and other organisations that represent workers gathered in front of the hotel at 3:00 pm to demand the three workers are reinstated.

At around 4:00 pm the crowd moved on to the marina and demonstrated in front of the Hotel Olympus, "to publicly denounce this attack by the hotel management against the rights of the workers and the democratic regime," explained a hospitality workers’ union spokesman.

This Thursday, the sacked workers will meet with the Secretary of State for Tourism “and still wait for a response from the Minister of Labour and Social Security and the mayor of Loulé to a request for a meeting sent by the union on December 12th," said the same spokesman.

The hotel workers’ union regrets "the way the hotel management bosses are treating the workers and the fact that they do not want to respect the rules inherent in the existence of democracy."

"It is unfortunate that hoteliers do not want to share with the workers the wealth created by those workers, particularly at a time when the industry is breaking all records," the union leader stated.

The union reaffirmed that it will carry out "all necessary actions and forms of struggle" until "justice is done and these workers return to their jobs and see their rights respected, namely the right to live in dignity."

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