"Global Trade Unions and Labor Rights Organizations Call for an End to the Retaliation Against Union Leaders at World Bank Funded Marriott-Sheraton Grand in Conakry, Guinea", October 2020

...[T]he 2020 World Bank Annual Meetings are... addressing the unprecedented issues of inequality, unemployment and economic crisis... It is well documented that... employers are using COVID- 19 as an excuse to bust unions... [T]he World Bank Group must be extremely vigilant to identify and respond swiftly to retaliatory employer actions where it is a financier.  The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Labor Performance Standard prohibits union busting, and... noted the increased risk and visibility of reprisals in the context of COVID-19, adding urgent guidance to its clients...

However... the IFC must back it up with enforcement of its own standards and action consistent with responsible business practices as a development financier. In an emblematic and ongoing labor dispute, the General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary of the IUF affiliate union, Fédération de l’Hôtellerie, Touristique, Restauration et Branche Connexe (FHTRC-ONSLG), were both terminated last week by IFC loan recipient hotel, the Marriott Sheraton Palma Guinea. Despite advance notification by trade union and NGO stakeholders, the IFC refused to intervene to prevent or remedy the retaliatory firing...

At the Marriott-Sheraton Grand in Conakry, Guinea, the IUF, ITUC, and Global Labor Justice – International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ – ILRF), advocated with the IFC to organize and win a fair union election despite retaliatory firings, but the hotel has since returned to firings and pressure on workers to bust the union. On October 7th, after an escalating pressure campaign by the hotel against union members, the Marriott-Sheraton Grand in Conakry, Guinea fired the two senior union officers as part of a broader attempt to bust the union.

... [W]e call on the World Bank and the... [IFC] to act in accordance with their mandates to block union busting and respect freedom of association and collective bargaining... This must include the reinstatement of... Amadou Diallo and... Alhassane Diallo, who were both terminated on October 7th, 2020 as leaders of the newly elected union, raising awareness around fundamental workplace issues, including health and safety...