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25.07.2025 / News /

Radisson Blu Housekeepers to launch first hotel strike in the UK since 1979

Radisson Blu Housekeepers to launch first hotel strike in the UK since 1979

For immediate release: 25 July 2025

• Housekeepers, mostly migrant women from Nepal, have returned a resounding 100% yes vote to strike at Radisson Blu in Canary Wharf.
• The hotel workers are set to take a first round of strike action on Saturday 9 August
• This will be the first hotel workers’ strike in the UK since 1979.
• Working conditions deteriorated after facilities outsourcing giant WGC took over the contract and slashed their contracted hours from 40 to 16 per week while almost doubling their workloads.
• The UVW members demand living wages, secure contracts, and fair workloads.

Housekeepers at the Radisson Blu hotel in Canary Wharf have returned a resounding YES to take strike action, marking what will be the first hotel workers’ strike in London and the UK since 1979. The workers, who are predominantly Nepali migrant women, are set to take the first round of strike action on 9th August. The workers who are UVW members are employed by outsourcing giant WGC, which took over cleaning operations across nine Radisson hotels in London last year.

Since the takeover, staff have seen their working conditions drastically worsen. Secure 40-hour contracts were replaced with insecure “flexible” contracts offering as few as 16 hours a week. At the same time, workloads have nearly doubled, with workers expected to clean up to 24 rooms per day — up from a previous 14. They earn just £13 an hour, a poverty wage well below the London Living Wage (LLW) of £13.85.  

Workers say these conditions are unsustainable and are demanding a return to 14 rooms per day, guaranteed 40-hour contracts, and an increase to the LLW. They also say they felt pushed to ‘voluntarily’ accept these changes in “consultation” meetings.

The last hotel strike in the UK was in 1979 when chambermaids walked out at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane.

Doris Selenbo, housekeeper for Radisson Blu for over 30 years:
“I’ve worked for the hotel – employed by different outsourcing companies – for over 30 years but it was when we were transferred to WGC about a year ago that everything started to get very hard. The amount of work that was given to the room attendants was doubled and the way we are now working is very very stressful. 24 rooms in one day is just too much work. Then a few months later they changed the contracts from our 40 hours to 16 hours per week and we had to go through a ‘consultation’. But we were told that if you don’t sign you are out. If we didn’t accept the new contracts then we’d be left with nothing because this was not a redundancy situation. So we felt pressured to agree to this. For me, that I’ve worked for so long for this hotel, almost my entire adult life,  I came to this country from Tanzania and I have contributed my share with my tax, for this company to now slash my hours like this …   how am I going to live? How am I going to pay my mortgage? How am I going to support my two girls? It’s been a very difficult situation. This is when I decided to join the union to get some support against these changes.”

Rupa Rai, housekeeper for Radisson Blu for over 15 years:
“I came to the UK from Nepal in 2009. My sister was working at Radisson Blu and she brought me here for work. I started as a room attendant, then a couple of years later I was promoted to supervisor. We have many Nepalese women working here and we work as a family. I like working here because it’s like a family. All was smooth with the work until suddenly we were transferred to this company WGC which took over the housekeeping. They said we have to move to 16 hours per week and I felt like what’s happening? It will be difficult for me to survive here. And to top it all,  we only work 16 hours  but have so much more to do.  We’ve worked here for 15/16 years but I don’t know what to do, we didn’t know where to go. But now we’ve joined the union and it feels like there may be hope, like something bright is coming to us from this darkness. We can fight this situation. Now we think we can fight and we can win this.” 

Petros Elia, UVW general secretary said:

“We are witnessing a historic moment in the UK’s labour movement. Not since 1979 has there been a hotel strike in London or the UK and as with most UVW action it is migrant women who are leading the way. Their unanimous vote for strike action sends a powerful message: Enough is enough. You can’t justify charging up to £300 a hotel room per night and pay the workers who clean, make the beds and keep the hotel running, a pittance. This 100% mandate reflects the growing anger and determination among hospitality workers to stand up to exploitation and fight for dignity, security, and fair pay.”

For more information contact

Isabel:  07706 987 443
Cristina: 07548 759340
E-mail: comms@uvwunion.org.uk   

Notes for editors

United Voices of the World is an anti-racist, member-led, direct action, campaigning trade union and we exist to support and empower the most vulnerable groups of precarious, low-paid and predominantly BAME and migrant workers in the UK. We fight the bosses through direct action on the streets and through the courts and demand that all members receive at least the London Living Wage, full pay, sick pay, dignity, equality and respect.

ENDS

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