Trade Unions in the Hotel and Catering Industry: The Views of Hotel Managers

Given the principal characteristics of hotel and catering industry employment – low pay, low job security, high labour turnover,often arbitrary management – it is a matter of some interest that the industry is unionized to only a limited extent. Offers a brief summary of the principal reasons advanced for explaining low unionization in the industry before proceeding to focus on the attitudes of hotel managers towards these explanations. Reports research based on interviews with managers in Scotland, during which individuals were asked to respond to a range of points with a view to ascertaining the continuing relevance or otherwise of the findings of previous research. Principal findings are that a tension exists between a general, if reluctant, acceptance of the need, by managers, for union representation in the industry and a belief in their own managerial efficacy which makes unions irrelevant to their particular circumstances.