Community activist Raymond Russell is appealing for hotel staff to join the new Bermuda Hotel Workers Union. He said he was confident the union would entice scores of hotel workers as members in the coming months, and promised they would get a better deal than with the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU).

He said too few people who were unable to work had gained from the BIU?s superannuation fund, and promised that the Bermuda Hotel Workers Union would go out of its way to ensure all of its members were looked after, whether they be local or guest workers.

?We are going to make sure that even after one year, if you become incapacitated and can?t work, the superannuation fund will kick in and work for you,? said Mr. Russell.

?We won?t have you work five or ten years first. We will be morally obligated to pay you.?

But Mr. Russell also said the union planned to build a complex of apartments out of union dues to help those hotel workers who needed assisted housing, and he said proceeds from the dues would also be used to assist others.

He said union fees would be two percent of a worker?s gross wage, with three percent of the takings going into the Somers Lioness Club?s fund to provide medicine for senior citizens.

And he said two percent of the monthly takings would be made available for ex-pat workers who had paid into the union when they left the Island.

He added: ?If they have been here working in our hotels and doing a good service and then they are going home, they should receive something out of the union funds, even if it is just $100.

?Some guest workers are here for many years and it is only right they receive something for that. It?s not nice when they get nothing.?

Mr. Russell also promised that union leaders would not be allowed to sit as Members of Parliament, as with the BIU.

However, he said it was also imperative that the Trade Union Act be amended to enable workers to join any union they wanted. At the moment, he said it stated they must join a particular union or pay the equivalent of the fees to a charity of their choice.

However, he said that was unfair and people should be free to join any union they wished, and believed within the near future, the law would be changed.

For more information about joining the new hotel workers union, call Mr. Russell on 295-5637 or at his place of work, the Sonesta Beach Hotel, on 238-8812.