Trump Turnberry is under attack from union RMT who claim hotel chiefs are using the coronavirus pandemic as a ‘cover’ for brutal job cuts.
RMT say they’re ‘stepping up the fight’ as up to 80 jobs are at risk at the US President’s Scottish flagship hotel and golf resort in Ayrshire.
Measures also include cuts to sick pay, pay rises, scrapping free meals for staff, temporarily reducing part-time hours and putting full-time workers on a four-day week ‘until the business is operating at pre-Covid 19 levels’.
With the consultation period ending on August 16, decision day is looming for the ‘devastated’ 300-strong workforce.
RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary Mick Lynch claims that with the spike in staycations Trump Trunberry’s cuts aim to ‘jack up profits’ and are ‘nothing to do with Covid-19’.
He told the Record: “RMT is stepping up the fight to protect our members' jobs and working conditions at Trump’s flagship Scottish Turnberry operation as the close of the formal consultation looms large.
“As all the talk is about UK staycations at the moment it is clear as day that these savage cuts at Trump Turnberry are nothing to do with COVID-19 and everything to do with casualising the workforce and kicking away their working conditions to jack up profits.
“RMT is demanding that the axe be lifted from above our members heads at Trump Turnberry and we are calling for public and political support for this campaign.”
Bosses, who own the 827-acre property, have kept a tight lipped on the exact details of the callous redundancy plan.
Last month the Trump Organisation announced plans for a retirement community on an old airfield and adjoining agricultural land, with provision for 225 properties as well as shops and leisure facilities.
Sarah Malone, executive vice-president of Trump International Scotland, said: “Our valued team members are uppermost in our thoughts and at the heart of all our communication as we navigate our way through this difficult crisis in the weeks and months ahead.”
“Our industry was forced to close its doors and we rely on international travellers as our lifeblood; travellers who are unlikely to return for some time.”
Trump Turnberry have been contacted for comment.
