A union is seeking to recruit travel agency staff as members following the collapse of Thomas Cook.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, which represented Thomas Cook shop and head office employees, plans to attract travel retail staff to join via a dedicated website due to go live before Christmas.
Many former agency branch workers, who were members of the union, were taken on by Hays Travel following its takeover of 500 Thomas Cook shops nationwide.
Others have benefited from the significant expansion of Barrhead Travel.
But the TSSA failed in a bid to gain union recognition for staff in Tui’s agency network last month.
The union’s new website, which is in the design stage, was prompted by the failure of Thomas Cook.
It will act as a means for retail workers across travel to join the union.
The move comes as the TSSA continues to press for a public enquiry into why the government failed to support Thomas Cook to keep it as a going concern.
General secretary Manuel Cortes said: “It’s great news that on a weekly basis our members who worked for Thomas Cook are starting new jobs.
“Our union will soon launch a dedicated website for travel trade retail staff so that even more of them can join our TSSA family.
“However, we can’t let the government off the hook for the collapse of this iconic brand. Ministers said Thomas Cook failed because it was ‘a dinosaur in a digital age’. Make no mistake, this was pure spin to try and absolve themselves of responsibility for their inaction.
“The purchase of the Thomas Cook retail shop network by Hays Travel and the 100 shop expansion recently announced by Barrhead Travel clearly shows that the comments made by the government were plain wrong.”