Travel staff seek recognition
The TSSA travel staffs’ union has asked for union recognition at the TUI Group travel and tourism company. Following the collapse of Thomas Cook (see page 4), the company is the sole major tour operator of its type left in the UK. The union’s general secretary, Manuel Cortes, said: “The sad demise of Thomas Cook has clearly shown to travel trade workers the value of trade union membership.”
He has written to TUI managing director Andrew Flintham, requesting a meeting to discuss the possibility. He pointed out that “TSSA has historically enjoyed recognition for retail staff across Thomas Cook before its demise as well as for members in Thomson Travel before it became part of the TUI group”.
Noting that a future Labour government has promised to introduce sectoral collective bargaining, he said: “With this in mind I think there would be value in us exploring the possibility of voluntary recognition in advance of this.”