HOUSEKEEPERS at the Radisson Blu in Canary Wharf will launch the first major hotel strike to take place in England in decades this weekend.

Their union, United Voices of the World, says conditions have sharply deteriorated since outsourcing giant WGC took over the hotel’s cleaning contract.

Workers have seen their hours slashed from 40 to as few as 16 per week, while daily room quotas nearly doubled from 14 to 24, UVW says.

The housekeepers are demanding a return to 40 guaranteed hours a week and a pay rise to the London Living Wage of £13.85 an hour.

The workers, predominantly migrant women from Nepal, will walk out on August 9, and be joined in a co-ordinated strike by staff from Draughts Bar.

The bar workers, who are on zero-hours contracts, are walking out over lost pay from last-minute shift cancellations and the replacement of table service with QR-code ordering.

They are demanding fixed-term contracts, but say management has so far met them with silence.

UVW general secretary Petros Elia said: “This fight goes beyond pay. It’s a stand against a system that exploits migrant workers, women, and black and brown workers — those who keep the industry running while being treated as disposable. 

“Low pay and insecurity aren’t inevitable — they’re political choices. But that system is beginning to crack, and it’s low-paid, migrant, and precarious workers who are leading the charge.”

The Radisson Blu walkout will mark the first housekeepers’ strike in England since 1979, and follows hot on the heels of industrial action launched by Village Hotel staff in Glasgow on Saturday.

WGC, Radisson Blu and Draughts Bar were contacted for comment.