Original: 【工盟死咗，公民未死 酒店工會的誕生】, published on HKCTU’s Facebook page.
Author: The Hotel Employees’ Union
Translator: Promise Li
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and last in our series of translations of short letters and statements from members of HKCTU that were posted on their Facebook page upon the news of their disbandment on September 17, 2021 due to increasing repression and harassment from pro-Beijing media and the Hong Kong government. We share these translations here to preserve the history of the city’s progressive and independent unionism and to honor HKCTU’s decades of organizing and struggle to better the lives of Hong Kong workers.
I’m not sure if anyone recalls how, after the August 5th General Strike in 2019, workers from many different sectors began to form their own group chats on Telegram. At the time, many hotel workers founded their own groups and began sharing news and discussing how they could also organize a strike. Some people in that group wanted to meet face-to-face to discuss the logistics, but it ended up dragging on for a while before we actually met.
The Polytechnic University siege—and all the events that led up to it—activated even more workers. So by mid-late November, around twenty hotel workers in the Telegram group finally came around to formally discuss creating a union. At the time we thought it was just a group of random directionless workers who populated the Telegram channels, but we realized later that HKCTU staffers were pivotal in agitating some of us behind the scenes. In our first meeting together, we decided to affiliate with HKCTU to get things started.
In the unionization wave of 2020, CTU staffers were often doing the so-called “shitwork.” Besides helping to kickstart some of the unions, they were pivotal to a lot of the behind-the-scenes work supporting the hospital workers’ strike, the June 20th cross-sector strike. Many people don’t realize this, and we want to take this moment to thank our friends in HKCTU.
“Once there was a genuine connection placed in front of me, but I neglected to treasure it. I only realized its value when it’s lost. These are some of the most painful experiences in life!”
As we watch all parties and civil society organizations fall one by one, we sigh together in grief and send out post after post to commemorate. We might not be able to recover the affections and bonds we once had, but we can organize again even if an organization dies.
Whether it’s hotel work or other sectors, we anticipate working conditions becoming worse and worse. And when things are so bad that we can’t even fix them by changing jobs, we hope everyone will wake up. We can still band together in solidarity to raise our collective demands—just like before.
#下一次再聚 #序是一切的開始 #敍述你我與香港的故事 #職工盟 #未散 #職工盟30年 #Whenwillweback #hkctu30 #SolidarityWithHKUnions #WeLoveFreedomInHK
【工盟死咗，公民未死 酒店工會的誕生】
文｜香港酒店工會
唔知大家仲有冇印象，喺19年85罷工後，tg出現好多唔同行業嘅公海group，當時就有一大堆酒店人搵到個酒店group，喺裡面share新聞、講吓搞工會罷工嘅事。當時有一班人話要約出嚟傾吓成立工會嘅事，但拖咗好耐。
理大圍城果期，加埋先前累積嘅事，驅使到好多人都想做啲嘢。喺11月中後期，有廿幾個酒店人喺公海group約出嚟討論成立工會嘅事。當時以為係一班污合之眾兩手揈揈去啦，去到發現原來幕後係職工盟嘅組織幹事負責籌備，經佢講解完之後在場人都決定喺職工盟現有工會之下開一個分會，拿拿聲上軌道行動。
初頭一班工會理事乜都唔識，好多時都係靠工盟嘅成員俾方向大家，邊做邊摸索工會點運作，招會員、做文宣、記招、行政工作、物資…… 理事通常都要收工後先開始做工會事務，工盟同事長期都捱更抵夜陪理事開會，協助工會行動。
喺2020年嘅工會運動上，職工盟嘅職員好多時候都係做「執屎」嘅工作，例如醫護人員罷工、620公投，除咗發起工會本身，職工盟職員喺幕後負責好多籌備、協調嘅工作，好多人未必感受到，喺到想向職工盟嘅職員朋友們致敬。
「曾經有一段真摯嘅感情放咗喺我面對，我冇好好珍惜，到失去咗果陣先嚟後悔，塵世間最痛苦莫過於此！」
見住一個個政黨、社會組織被解散，大家都會黯然慨嘆，紛紛出post悼念。感情失去咗未必搵得返，但組織失去咗，大家都可以組織返。
不論係酒店業同其他行業，我哋都預見未來工作條件會越嚟越差。當差到一個點係轉工都解決唔到果陣，希望大家會醒起，我哋仲可以團結爭取訴求，就好似以前咁。
工盟死咗，公民未死。
#下一次再聚 #序是一切的開始 #敍述你我與香港的故事 #職工盟 #未散 #職工盟30年 #Whenwillweback #hkctu30 #SolidarityWithHKUnions #WeLoveFreedomInHK
