La Beach Hotel workers hold demo; they want 'dictator' GM out

GM of Labadi Beach Hotel, Adrian Landry

The workers of La Beach Hotel last Wednesday wore red bands and chanted protest songs on the premises of the hotel to buttress their resolve to see their General Manager, Adrian Landry leave.

The workers have sworn to continue wearing the red bands to work until their demands are met.

Months ago the workers wrote a petition to the majority shareholders of the hotel, South African-based Legacy Hotels and Resort demanding for the replacement of the GM on grounds of his alleged dictatorship, intimidation and gross disrespect for workers and other managers over the past seven years.

The workers later met with a representative of Legacy and issued an ultimatum that they will not accommodate Mr. Landry beyond the first week of June this year.

But the Ghanaian-based Board of Directors of the hotel, led by Asawase MP, Mohammed Muntaka Muburak later met leadership of the local workers' union and demanded their request in writing to the board.

While the workers are yet to submit the written petition to the board, the union leadership met with the workers on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 and informed them about another meeting to be held next week Tuesday with their mother union, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) over the issue.

The workers got angry with the repeated meetings over the issue, even though their demand is very clear, that they want the GM to leave by first week of June. They therefore stormed out of that meeting with the union leaders and wore red bands and chanted a series of protest songs to register their resolve to see the GM leave.

The workers have also resolved to continue wearing the red bands from now till the Tuesday meeting, and if their meeting does not yield their desired results they will hit the streets.

The GM, Mr. Landry has remained unavailable for comments throughout this period, but Adom News managed to reach board chairman, Muntaka Mubarak and he said if the GM has to go then the hotel would have to give him a huge ex-gratia, but the hotel is not in the position to do so now.

Meanwhile the workers have stated and restated their resolve to see the GM go because they can longer accommodate his alleged dictatorship, intimidation and disrespect for the workers.

“We want a GM who will treat us first as human beings before seeing us as just staff of this hotel – we cannot take anymore of the open disrespect their the GM shows to even his own colleague managers,” one worker said.

Another stated that “we are committed to ensuring that La Beach Hotel maintains its status as the first Five Star Hotel in Ghana and we will continue to work hard to ensure that, but we want to work in an environment where we are respected as partners for progress.”

They have given notice of a bigger demo if the GM is not let go by the first week of June this year.