Building Trade Union Capacity in Hospitality-Tourism to Enable a Stronger Sectoral Social Dialogue

Europe’s hospitality-tourism sector employs more than 10 million workers and is one of the key drivers of the European economy, yet the workers employed face persistent challenges: widespread non-standard employment, low pay, and difficult working conditions which find their source in weak social dialogue and low trade union density. Stronger Hospitality is an EU-funded project coordinated by EFFAT designed to develop and strengthen the capacity of trade unions in the hospitality sector – particularly in Central and South-Eastern Europe – to meet the various challenges facing the sector.

Through this project, we aim to:

• Build capacity for a stronger social dialogue in the hospitality-tourism sector.
• Address the low trade union density and strengthen trade unions in the hospitality-tourism sector.
• Mobilise young workers in the sector to join trade unions and participate in sectoral social dialogue at European and national level.
• Increase EFFAT representativeness in the hospitality-tourism sector.

This platform collects all the project’s deliverables, offering research findings, tools, and resources to support trade unions and stakeholders in building a fairer, stronger, and more sustainable hospitality sector.

Deliverables

• EFFAT Final Report: Stronger Hospitality – Building Trade Union Capacity for a Thriving Social Dialogue (June 2025 | ES – FR)
• Executive Summary: Stronger Hospitality – Building Trade Union Capacity for a Thriving Social Dialogue (June 2025 | GR – DE – ES – FR – IT)
• Handbook: Recommendations for Actions (June 2025 | ES – FR)
• Leaflet: Solidarity Beyond Borders – The Value of EFFAT Membership (June 2025 | ES – FR)

EFFAT Articles

• Final Conference: Fighting Forward for Stronger Collective Bargaining (November 2024)
• Webinar: Organising Young Workers for a Stronger Hospitality Sector (January 2025)
• Workshop: Strengthening Collective Bargaining in European Hospitality – Insights from the Cyprus Workshop (April 2025)

Useful Reads:

• EFFAT-HOTREC Joint Declaration on How to Overcome Labour and Skills Shortages in the Hospitality Sector (March 2024)