Hotel staff to strike during Pride weekend event

Staff at a Manchester hotel will be on strike during the city's upcoming Pride weekend.

Unite union members working at the Kimpton Clocktower hotel and its bar, The Refuge, will be striking over working conditions on Saturday - the second day of Manchester Pride.

The strike will mark the first ever hospitality strike in the North West, according to the union. It comes after the hotel advertised Pride weekend package stays and a free two-day Pride celebration to take place at the hotel's Refuge bar.

A spokesperson for InterContinental Hotels Group UK (IHG), which owns the Kimpton Clocktower, said it has plans to minimise disruption - adding "the hotel and The Refuge continue to operate as normal".

"We are aware of concerns raised by a small number of colleagues at The Refuge at the Kimpton Clocktower Manchester, who have decided to take industrial action," the IHG spokesperson said.

"We have taken those concerns seriously and continue to engage with colleagues through well established, direct feedback channels."

The spokesperson added: "Whilst we do not agree with the action being taken, we respect their individual rights to choose whether to join a trade union and to take part in lawful industrial action. "

The action comes as the hotel prepares for its "Come As You Are Weekend" - which is advertised as a two-day free Pride celebration to run on Saturday and Sunday at the hotel bar.

The event will feature sets from a number of DJs and artists and has previously included activities like "disco yoga" and entertainment from guest drag queens.

Manchester Pride's Saturday is historically "the most lucrative day of the year for the hotel", Unite union said.

"Throughout this dispute Kimpton Clocktower management have treated its loyal workforce with contempt and our members have shown they will not stand for it," Unite regional officer Alison Treacher said.

The union said hotel and bar staff have been denied formal union recognition after raising several issues with management.

"Our members at Kimpton Clocktower are simply seeking to be represented by their union," Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.

"But instead of granting them this management has bullied them and undertaken union-busting at every turn."

The hotel declined to comment on the allegations of "union-busting", made earlier this year when two union activist staff members were dismissed.

Unite claimed the sackings were for "undertaking trade union activities".

The company said at the time that it "did not comment on the employment situations of individual colleagues".

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