Only a few months after winning the union election, hotel union General Secretary Amadou Diallo (pictured right) and Deputy General Secretary Alhassane Diallo (pictured left) were sacked by their employer on October 7.
The facts:
- on August 18, 2020, Mohamed Saliou Sampil, a worker at the Sheraton Grand Conakry, accidentally breaks a flower pot in the lobby
- on August 26, management summons M. Sampil to a pre-termination interview, and General Secretary Amadou Diallo and Deputy General Secretary Alhassane Diallo meet with management to express their serious disagreement with the proposed termination of their colleague. Within days, hotel management suspends the two union leaders without pay
- on September 16, management terminates M. Sampil despite his apology
- on September 28, the union presents a petition signed by a majority of the hotel workers in support of M. Sampil
- on October 7, management terminates hotel union General Secretary Amadou Diallo and Deputy General Secretary Alhassane Diallo
The hotel, owned by the Topaz group, was opened in 2016 with a significant investment from the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), an international financial institution that offers investments to encourage private sector development in developing countries at preferential loan rates. The hotel is managed by the largest hotel chain in the world, Marriott, where the IUF has an ongoing global campaign. Despite the IFC’s Performance Standards, a set of rules intended to protect workers, and despite multiple attempts by the IUF to prevent the dismissal of the union leaders, the IFC has chosen to allow violations of its own Performance Standards as well as ILO Conventions 87, 98 and 135.
“The IUF will not tolerate such brazen violations of trade union rights, and so the IUF and its affiliates stand ready to launch our campaign for the reinstatement of General Secretary Amadou Diallo and Deputy General Secretary Alhassane Diallo,” says IUF General Secretary Sue Longley.
“We must fight hard together. The importance of this struggle is to stop union-busting, because it kills workers hope and undermines democracy,” adds General Secretary Amadou Diallo.
