Hotel Workers' Union's Social Media Campaign Threatens Hotel Revenue, Warns Barbados Hotel Association Chairman

By Sheria Brathwaite

The war of words between the nation’s hoteliers and the union that represents its workers currently raging on social media could threaten hotels’ bottom line, the head of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) has charged.

Chairman Renée Coppin acknowledged tour operators’ anxiety about a “smear campaign’s” negative influence on customer decision-making, in which messages portrayed Barbadian hotels as exploiting their workers.

At BHTA’s final quarterly conference for the year at the Hilton Barbados Resort on Wednesday, Coppin also pushed back on several charges made in viral videos that have fuelled the months-long squabble.

She also highlighted a trend of hotel workers approaching guests directly to express discontent, contributing to an anti-industry sentiment.

Coppin said she has received several calls claiming that the social media posts that sought to “villainise hoteliers” served as “clickbait” that has begun to create problems for some employers.

She told fellow hoteliers: “You have all been calling and reaching out to me and our secretariat about the damaging impact that some of the messages being promoted about our industry are having on our industry. Your concerns have ranged from our tour operators expressing alarm about the negative impact on customer decision-making based on a growing messaging about Barbadian hotels exploiting their workers, to a more recent one where it appears that some in the industry are now going to guests and directly expressing malcontent as a part of the initiative to bolster anti-industry sentiment.

“There can be no doubt that the recent campaign has done damage and there does come a point where we must speak.”

Coppin’s remarks were the BHTA’s latest response in a public spat between the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) and the association over the state of working conditions in the island’s hotels.

When she first called out the labour movement for the “smear campaign” on social media, Coppin did not name the BWU but videos on the union’s social media pages alleged mistreatment of hospitality workers. In some of those videos, people identifying themselves as hotel workers complained about poor working conditions, having to buy uniforms and work equipment, not being served lunch and not getting the service charge collected by establishments.

However, Coppin pointed out on Wednesday that the last documented concerns the BHTA received were in 2020 and there had been no activation of grievance procedures since.

The hotel industry leader declared: “We are not aware of any hotel which has threatened to dismiss or otherwise penalise staff for union membership. In fact, one of the hotels facing this particular allegation has a union membership of approximately six per cent.

“There are members in the collective agreement who have remained despite not having a single registered union member on staff. Most hotels, which are not signatories to the agreement, subscribe to the spirit of the agreement, particularly in relation to wage increases.”

Coppin pushed back on a number of the videos’ claims. For example, chefs walking with their own tools is a globally accepted professional standard and they took pride in that, she said.

As it relates to uniforms, she acknowledged that there were some setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues; however, she said many hotels were back on track and in some instances, they exceeded the three-uniform

requirement under the 2017-2020 collective agreement with the BWU.

Regarding lunch, Coppin said some hotels did not provide any but under the same 2017-2020 collective agreement, every employee is paid $8 “as the commuted value of the meals that should ordinarily have been supplied by the employer”.

Said the BHTA leader: “This has become a highly emotive issue and has been brandished as a means of demonstrating the exploitative and unreasonable nature of hoteliers, but we need to emphasise that it is an allowance negotiated with the union in our last collective agreement.”

On the complaint about the service charge not being paid to workers, the BHTA chairman said there were hotels among the current signatories that did not collect service charge and have been unfairly accused of not paying it.

“The facts speak for themselves in this regard,” Coppin told the association’s members. “We have not yet had any evidence of any hotels that are collecting service charge and not paying it. For hotels in the agreement that do not collect service charge, they brokered a separate agreement with the union to pay their staff at a premium to their negotiated category pay scale. This has been honoured.”

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