Labor relations, tourism

A declining minority of workers in tourism worldwide are represented by labor unions. The portion of represented workers varies widely among leading destinations: less than 10 % in the United States, one quarter to one third throughout most of Europe, and 20 % in Australia (International Labor Organization 2014). Although the percentage of workers represented by unions has declined steadily worldwide in recent decades, labor unions maintain effective social and political influence and continue to develop new union organizing methods, targets, and agendas. Represented workers remain a significant portion of the tourism workforce, and their unions continue to influence labor policy and relations in the tourism industry (Blanpain 2010).

Labor unions gained legal protections in most countries in the early part of the twentieth century, a time when workers themselves enjoyed very few legal rights in the workplace. Before unions won the legal right to organize and bargain collectively, the...