Hotel Employees on Strike – Bad News for Business
It’s the news no hotelier wants to hear – union staff have voted to walk out. Not only do you have to find interim help that’s willing to cross picket lines; you have to find guests who are also willing to do so.
A work strike could cost your company more than just dollars. As with the case of the downtown Chicago Sheraton hotel locations facing such a strike the last week of October 2009, staffing shortages could seriously impede your business as usual. In the case of the Sheraton unionized workers, over 1,000 staffers were set to vote on whether to walk. Finding replacement help – adequate replacement help – is a crippling task. What’s more, interim staff have a higher risk associated with them. Because they’re not familiar with your business model, there’s a good chance your guest relations ratings could suffer. Not to mention the variables you can’t control – temporary employee unreliability, theft, and the chance that these employees weren’t vetted properly. Inefficient performance is one thing – guest safety, entirely another.
