No grace in non-union ballot

Date: 21 March 2001

MEDIA RELEASE

" This was definitely not a ballot conducted with much grace," LHMU Hotel Union Assistant National Secretary, Tim Ferrari said today.

" Police were called in by management; union officials were threatened.

" Attempts to hand out, at the hotel, alternative advice and analysis of what the enterprise agreement actually meant were stopped; and scrutineers were denied access to the ballot boxes - but it was all to no avail.

" Workers had been asked to accept a deal that was a complex manipulation of rates of pay, allowances and penalty rates.

" The company employed a well known anti-union industrial relations consultant to advise them on how to get through an enterprise deal which we said would have left the workforce worse off.

" Employing a union-baiting adviser has only done one thing for the hotel - left them with a huge bill."

The Grace Hotel is a beautifully restored 1930 art deco building in York St, Sydney, used by General MacArthur as his HQ during World War II, and formerly the head office of the Grace Bros department store chain.

" All sorts of pressure was felt by union members in an attempt by the hotel to push through an agreement in which the workers had had no real voice.

" The results, which came out today, show the workforce has rejected the employers one-sided agreement by voting it down 79 votes to 67 votes.

" Our analysis show the aggro and the tension created by an employer trying to avoid a union voice in the workplace simply resulted in the workers getting suspicious," Tim Ferrari said.

" The workers knew they would have been significantly worse off than other hotel workers in this city.

" We are now calling on the management of The Grace Hotel to stop using the Reith laws to avoid a union voice in the workplace.

" The hotel should sit down with the union and its members for proper negotiations that reward employees adequately for the work they do."

The Grace Hotel is part of the international Summit Hotel chain with 165 hotels around the world, including four in Australia.

The LHMU proudly represents more than 150,000 working women and men throughout Australia.

For further info: LHMU Hotel Union's Tim Ferrari 0425 242 727 or Aaron Magner 0418 9648 06

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