You are here: Home / Archives for News / Workers

Jobless youth punished with compulsory slave labour

March 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Unpaid, compulsory work continues to be forced on young jobseekers, despite government promises to end sanctions for those who insisted on real jobs, with real wages.

While Tescos was congratulating itself over its PR scam, its emerged that it’s business as usual for Jobcentres, who are continuing to funnel young people into ‘Mandatory Work Activity’ which lasts for up to eight weeks.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed, that far from reforming the systematic exploitation of the unemployed, the government is taking its revenge by imposing compulsory ‘work experience’ on those who refuse ‘voluntary work experience’.

The government thought it had seen off the issue by scrapping the penalty (2 weeks’ benefit docked) for those who didn’t complete the voluntary scheme. In reality, those job-seekers are then just shunted into compulsory schemes where the failure to complete the 8-week course means your benefits can be suspended for between 3 and 6 months.

The reality is that the government has no intention of scrapping Workfare, and private business have no intention of pulling out of such a profitable scheme.

There are now more people in Mandatory Work placements than voluntary ones.

Tory Chancellor George Osborne said “we let people rot on the dole for 9 months before we offer them a badly paid job or apprenticeship – and they should be grateful for everything they’ve got.”

The truth is that well over a million 16-24 year olds cannot find work, education or training. We make up more than a third of the official jobless rate. The rate for Black youth is pushing 50%.

Throwing us into compulsory work, with no pay, is simply an effort to massage the unemployment statistics in favour of a government which has overseen the biggest jobs massacre in a generation.

The struggle against workfare is far from over. The Tories and Lib-Dems are in league with Britain’s big companies to force through a fundamental change to the workforce.

Instead of long-term, secure, well-paid jobs, they want to boost the number of part-time, temporary and low paid jobs. The 2-year wage freeze for public sector workers is worsened by the freeze on the minimum wage for the youngest workers.

The 11p rise in the minimum wage from October is a slap in the face for millions of working families who are struggling to make ends meet, in the face of increasing inflation and deep cuts to vital services like Sure Start.

To cap it all, today will see the traitors in Parliament approve the privatisation of the NHS, and tomorrow Osborne will unveil his new budget – tax cuts for the rich, fuck all for the rest of us.

Enough is enough, it’s time to fight back!

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Minimum wage frozen for young workers

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Black youth unemployment nears 50%

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Anti-workfare protests target Tescos

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Filed Under: Liberation, News, Workers, Youth Oppression Tagged With: , , , ,

Why have PCS leaders pulled the plug on M28?

March 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cold feet, Mark?

March 28th has been talked up as the next date for joint strikes by different trade unions against the government’s pension cuts, but despite overwhelming votes for strike action in several unions, it seems the leaders don’t have the stomach for a fight.

They aren’t just betraying their own members – they’re selling out millions of unemployed young people, who will have to begin the fight for a fair pension from scratch.

One-by-one the main unions involved (NUT, PCS, UCU) have decided to ditch action or else undermine it:

  • The UCU decided it would onlystrike nationally if the PCS was striking. The anti-trade union laws mean members in pre-92 universities on a different pension scheme could not be ballotted for action.
  • Then the NUT leaders decided that they would only call for strikes in London on the day.
  • Then the UCU leaders scaled down their action even further by also limiting strikes to London (unless PCS shamed them into striking nationwide by being the first to bite the bullet and call a national strike on March 28.
  • Now the PCS leaders have announced that they will not strike until April.

This is despite the fact that the members of these unions have shown that they want to fight. The NUT got a 70% ‘yes’ vote in its latest ballot for further strikes against pension cuts, with a similar number of PCS members voting ‘yes’ too.

The PCS leadership have claimed that they are only doing this because they want to coordinate their strikes with other unions. This begs the question why they aren’t calling their members out on a day when at least 2 other unions are? They aren’t even following their own logic!

But more importantly, the PCS leader Mark Serwotka is allowing his members to be fucked over by the more right-wing leaders of other trade unions. At a recent meeting in Manchester of Unite the Resistance, he criticised the leadership of Unison for selling out the pension dispute, but then admitted he did not want to take action without them.

Serwotka should be organising more strikes, not less, and appealing to grassroots members of other unions to join the PCS’s actions. But trade union leaders often refuse to call out different unions’ members for fear of breaking the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between the different union bureaucrats which says that they won’t challenge each other’s power.

Young people need to help and support trade unionists organise against their rotten leaders, who would rather give up their members’ pensions than fight for them. If public sector positions are cut and the workers forced to stay in their jobs for longer, then there are less jobs for us to take up, and youth unemployment will rise. Not to mention the fact that cuts to our hospitals, education and communities all negatively impact our quality of life any way.

We also need to organise to pressure the unions to fight back against the worrying rise of two-tier workforces – where young workers are paid less, with worse pension rights, for doing the same job as older co-workers.

In the trade unions we need networks of ordinary members to challenge the leaders and act as an alternative when the bureaucrats sell us out. Those of us not in unions should make links with these workers, and plan our own actions to stop the government’s austerity drive.

 

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Will Tescos keep its jobs promise?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Police role in blacklist scandal exposed

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Save NHS rally is missed opportunity

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Filed Under: News, Workers Tagged With: , , , ,

Will Tescos keep its promise to create 20,000 jobs?

March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When Tescos announced they were caving in to protesters demands by withdrawing from workfare and creating 20,000 new jobs, it’s hard not to be cynical.

In 2010 Tescos promised to create 9,000 new jobs in the UK. However it doesn’t say if these are full-time, part-time or even permanent contracts. In fact Tescos has created just 3,592 hours’ worth of jobs – less than half promised.

The multi-billion pound company has made a meal out of its decision to increase the number of apprenticeships and make these available to current employees.

The legal minimum wage for apprentices is just £2.60 an hour and while they make learning trades like plumbing and building more accessible, working in a supermarket does not require such training.

This is simply Tescos way of airbrushing out the fact that they are reducing the number of full-time jobs, and seeking to transfer more and more staff onto low-cost temporary, part-time or apprentice contracts.

We need to be sceptical about Tesco’s promising all these jobs when without the real details it is impossible to see how many will emerge; their past record gives us no reason to be optimistic.

Nevertheless the vibrant campaign against workfare has forced dozens of companies to ditch the scheme, and is another slap in the face for Cameron.

Now we need to keep up the pressure on these companies to invest in real jobs paying people a living wage. This is particularly important for young people who face housing, jobs and training shortages which prevent us from living our own lives independently.

Tescos make £2.5billion profit a year because it is incredibly efficient at extracting the most value from its workers for the least cost (wages). It’s time to make Tescos put their money where their mouth is.

We need to build a movement fighting for real jobs, with real wages. The super-rich are making obscene profits in the middle of a massive economic crisis. We are fighting to end a system which rewards a tiny few at the expense of the jobs, security and happiness of ordinary people.

 

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tesco workfare scandal finally blows up

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Brand Sabotage: can Twitter bring down Tesco?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1 million youth unemployed – enough is enough!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Filed Under: News, Workers Tagged With: , ,

Police role in blacklist scandal exposed

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The blacklist run by Britain’s major construction companies which helped keep thousands of trade unionists out of work for years, was maintained with info supplied by the police and MI5.

The only surprise about the police’s criminal role is that it has been exposed so quickly.

Investigators going through the records of the company which maintained the blacklist discovered it contained information which could only have come from the security services.

The Blacklist contained the names of 3,200 workers who were known as trade unionists or deemed ‘troublesome’ (trade unionists). The workers were victimised for trying to organise trade unions on construction sites, or raising concerns about appalling working conditions in the industry – the most dangerous in the country.

The collusion of the police with the authors of the blacklist dates from a time when the security services developed very close links with the construction industry in order to keep tabs on the large numbers of Irish migrants working on British building sites. The excuse was the need to investigate IRA terrorism, the motivation was boosting profits by intimidating employees who fought for higher wages or better working conditions.

The blacklist was ‘discovered’ in 2009. Blacklisting is an illegal but very common practise in blue-collar industries. More than 40 companies including household names like Balfour Beatty and Robert McAlpine had been funding the database.

The database was maintained by a firm called The Consulting Association. It was shut down and a private investigator was fined £5,000.

However, none of the big construction companies have faced any sanction for their part in the scheme, and are even now compiling new blacklists on their workers, especially around the important London Olympics projects.

This case shows that the state, and its security services are not neutral – we can’t rely on them to mediate between the bosses and workers. The recent victory of the Sparks electricians’ campaign against wage-cuts shows how determined militant action by grassroots workers can beat the combined power of some of the countries biggest companies.

Any company suspected of using similar blacklists should be denounced and face direct action until it publically rejects their use.

However, as long as company records and employment practices are controlled by unaccountable bosses, we can never really trust them.

We fight for companies threatening sackings or using blacklists to have their records subjected to review by the workers, who can then determine where the company’s money has gone, and what criteria were used for job applicants.

 

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Balfour Beatty bosses forced to back down

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Exposing Corporate Killers

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Balfour Beatty’s Blacklist

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Filed Under: Balfour Beatty - Corporate Killers, Civil Liberties, News, Police, Workers Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Workfare the symptom, Socialism the cure

March 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The recent protests against workfare were an impressive example of how much we can achieve when we fight back. It shows that we don’t have to sit back and take the millionaire’s medicine, just because they say so.

Many people are celebrating the ‘victory’ of anti-workfare protesters in their campaign against unpaid work. Richard Seymour on the Lenin’s Tomb blog said recently that the government withdrawing the compulsory aspect of the workfare scheme was basically “ killing the heart of the programme.“ True, they have changed to a smaller stick, but there are still no carrots for job-seekers.

Recent pro-government news reports and commentary pieces in both the television and printed press, have focussed on people ‘getting the most’ out of workfare. The other day on the BBC, a cheery young person was telling the camera about a placement in Greggs head office which got them the job.

Jobseekers, especially young ones, are told that ‘volunteering’ your time for free is the only way to get the necessary ‘experience’. The government isn’t fooling anyone – especially not the 1 million+ unemployed graduates, college students and school-leavers who know that ‘stacking shelves in Tescos’ is not the kind of experience which bosses are looking for.

Though the government has toned down the arm-twisting on the Workfare scheme, the pressure and expectation that people should work for free is growing. Increasingly traditional white-collar jobs require applicants to have a number of internships behind them, and now so-called ‘entry level’ jobs like cleaning and shopwork are going the same way.

The huge number of companies of all sizes taking part in the scheme showed that employers were desperate to get their hands on some free workers – giving them ‘valuable experience’  and saving serious amounts of money in the process. What’s their real motive? Across all sections of the private sector- from multinationals and banks to charities and social enterprises, companies are using free labour as a way of reducing the amount of people they have to hire.

Around the recent Tesco’s campaign, lots of people said that ‘Tescos is so rich they can afford to pay people’. True, but a clearer way of putting it would be ‘Tescos is so rich because of the money they save paying out poverty wages to some, and nothing for the rest’. Companies don’t get rich by sharing the profits with their employees. The owners and managers of Tescos are raking in millions because thousands of employees only get a fraction of the value of their work back as wages.

So even though the government has ended compulsion in 3 of the 5 different workfare programs, that doesn’t impact on the fact that this state-backed ‘work experience’ is undermining wages, reducing job security and reinforcing a vicious race to the bottom among young unemployed because the companies know young people have no alternative to whatever shit terms and conditions they are prepared to offer.

On one hand, the workfare scheme is little more than a scheme for redistributing wealth from rich to poor during an economic crisis – young people work for free, add value to company, added value is pocketed by overpaid millionaire owner, young jobseeker is sent back to Jobcentre and replaced with the next ‘applicant’.

But on the other hand the wage system is automatically exploitative – the workfare scheme just ditches the bullshit about ‘a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay’. More importantly to their Tories, and their backers, the British bosses, the workfare scheme is about introducing a permanent shift in working patterns. The owners of companies want more freedom to hire and fire, more temporary contracts, and the right to pay lower wages.

Neither the Tories, nor the Lib Dems have a plan to eradicate unemployment – they think it’s a necessary part of society. High unemployment benefits the rich because they use the fear of sacking to keep their employees in line.

We are 100% against schemes which profit the rich at the expense of working class people. Not because we are ‘trying to ruin young people’s dreams’  or ‘job-snobs’ but because we are fighting for young people to get what we’re owed. We don’t want to be bullshitted that volunteering in Tescos is the first step to a millionaire lifestyle. The bosses are banking obscene profits while 1 million of us have no work or qualifications. Workfare is only the symptom of the wider disease – Capitalism and its crises, which is wrecking our lives and planet. Protests and campaigns can limit attacks and even win temporary victories like the NHS. But only socialism – the democratic economy managed by and for the working class – is  the permanent cure.

The strikes and occupations by young shop-workers in Ireland at Primark and La Senza show that resistance is possible. We need to build a movement which can unite struggles to save a local youth centre or swimming pool with the electricians who faced down the big 7 construction companies. Only a united campaign, rooted in our communities, schools and workplaces can bring down Cameron and Clegg and stop the cuts.

REVOLUTION is fighting for

  • An end to workfare and unpaid ‘volunteer’ schemes
  • Back-payment for all those involved in the scheme at the same rate as equivalent employees
  • Real jobs and apprenticeships paid at a living wage, or the trade union rate.
  • Free education and training, with living grants for all students
  • A reverse to the 75% slashing of the budget for youth services

 

Have you been on a workfare scheme, or been pressured to take part? We want to hear your stories. e-mail kady@socialistrevolution.org

 

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What does exploitation mean?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

1 million youth unemployed – enough is enough!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Anti-workfare protests target Tescos

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Filed Under: News, Workers, Youth Oppression Tagged With: , , , ,

Video: Tesco store manager refuses to sign pledge to pay his staff!

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Workers Tagged With: , ,

No pay, no work protests hit Tescos in London, Leeds & Manchester

February 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Tesco’s stores were today picketed by protesters angry at their involvement in the workfare scheme.

London

In London, the Westminster Tesco’s was closed while protesters were removed by police. Protesters chanted ‘Tesco bosses hear us say, we won’t work if you won’t pay’. There were no arrests reported.

Leeds

A dozen people held a protest outside the Tesco’s in Leeds, lots of passersby stopped to take leaflets and talk about their disgust over the scheme. Unfortunately the manager refused to sign our pledge not to use the workfare scheme, and said he would be emailing his superiors about the protest. They probably already know.

Manchester

Holding signs and banners against workfare slavery, around fifty activists chanted slogans outside Tesco on Market Street, giving out leaflets and talking to passers by. A McDonalds worker fed up with low wages himself came to show his support and many people on the busy street were outraged at what Tescos is doing. Disgracefully, the store manager refused to sign our pledge promising that all staff in his shop should be paid  in line with normal terms and conditions! Instead he hid behind some burly security and called the police. Protesters promised to give him until 3rd March to reconsider… when we will be back.

Tesco’s have tried to play down the growing row – putting it down to a ‘computer error’. But the reality is that Tesco’s has benefitted from the work of more than 1400 mainly young people, and they are not alone.

Dozens of major companies have been quietly profiting at the expense of the taxpayer and unemployed for over a year. These protests are part of a campaign to make companies decide this scheme isn’t worth the hassle.

We want the government to abolish all compulsory unpaid work schemes, and demand that all work is paid at least the minimum wage.

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tesco workfare scandal finally blows up

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Brand Sabotage: can Twitter bring down Tesco?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1 million youth unemployed – enough is enough!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Filed Under: Action, News, Workers Tagged With: , , , ,

Brand Sabotage: can Twitter bring down Tesco?

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

No of course not. But attacking a company brand can certainly do a lot of damage to it, and potentially make a company – particularly one which is consumer based – go running scared and change its decisions.

That’s why there is every chance we can we stop Tesco workfare-slavery and give their management a seriously bloody nose at the same time.

This week has already seen a minor victory with TK Maxx withdrawing from the Workfare programme, but there are still loads of major companies profiting from the scheme.

What’s in a brand?

Big companies spend £millions every year trying to boost their “brand” – the image, personality and values associated with their company.

It is big business and is the reason why many people will order a “coke” instead of a cola or Pepsi if they go to a bar. It is the reason why when Burger King spend money advertising, McDonalds often end up benefitting from increased sales. It is the reason why some people will pay thousands just for an Armani or similar label on their clothes.

Brand sabotage

That’s why attacking a brand successfully can hurt the pockets of the bosses in a big way. Recent months have seen a resurgence in ‘subvertising’ or ‘brandalism’ previously associated with the anticapitalist movement in the early part of the decade. It was in fact the leftwing ‘Adbusters’ magazine who put out the call for the first #Occupy demonstration in the United States.

Tesco originally deleted comments about workfare from their Facebook wall, but were overwhelmed. Now they are trying, and failing with a strategy of damage limitation to preserve the idea that ‘every little helps’.

Social media like Facebook and Twitter have become new ways for companies to improve their brand image and whitewash some of the skeletons in their closets. But at the same time they’ve risked exposing themselves to millions of online users prepared to tell the truth. The message is clearly – fling enough mud, and some of it’ll stick.

The new danger of “brand sabotage” to companies is so great that Business Website Deloitte has even published a book about it, with tips on how companies can respond to “insurgent attacks” on their brand.

But by the looks of things so far, Tesco managers haven’t read it.



Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tesco workfare scandal finally blows up

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Exposed! How big business buys government influence

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1 million youth unemployed – enough is enough!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

***
The following companies and organisations are known to have used or be using workfare. See the Boycott Workfare website:

99p stores
a4e
Alpha Stream – Kent
Asda
ATS
BHS – British Home Stores [1]
Boots
Burger King
Burton
Age Concern
Alton Towers [2]
Argos
Asian Star Community Radio LTD
Barnardos
Bookers Wholesale
Carillion – Kent
British Heart Foundation
Capability Scotland
Cancer Research
Chessington World of Adventures [2]
DB Accident Repair – Kent
DC Cleaning Sussex
Diamond Glass Medway – Kent
Dorothy Perkins [1]
Envirostream – Kent
Evans [1]
Finsbury Park Business Forum
F&S Interiors – Kent
Go Response – Kent
Haringey Council
Helen & Douglas House Hospice – Maidenhead
HMV [3]
Holiday Inn
Holland & Barrett
Gorgie City Farm
Greggs the bakers
JA Glover – Kent
Jessup Electrical Wholesale Ltd – Kent
JJ Vickers & Sons Ltd – Kent
Kennedy Scott
Kent Flooring Supplies – Kent
Kent Space – Kent
Legoland Parks [2]
London Eye [2]
Madame Tussauds [2]
Marie Curie
Maplin
Matalan
Mayhem Paintball – Kent
McDonald’s
Medway Council
Medway Tyres – Kent
Miss Selfridge
Mr Gleam – Sussex
Newham Council
Newhaven Community Development
Oxfam
Olympic Glass – Kent
Omnico Plastics Ltd – Kent
Outfit [1]
Payless – Kent
PDSA
Pizza Hut
Plumbase – Kent
Poundland
Poundstretcher
PPDG
Primark
Process Plant Services Ltd – Kent
RBLI
Regency Guillotine – Kent
Richmond Fellowship
Rock Circus [2]
Romney Resource Kent
Royal Mail
RNR Performance Cars – Kent
Saffron Acres Project
Salvation Army
Savers
Sealife Centres [2]
Scope
Scout Enterprises
Servest – Kent, London
Shelter
SHOC Slough Homeless
Signs & Imaging Ltd – Kent
Slough Library
Slough Furniture Project
Southern Membranes Ltd – Kent
Southern Metal Services – Kent
southern Roofing & Building Supplies – Kent
Stephens Fresh Food – Kent
Superdrug
Swan Lifeline – Windsor
Tesco
Thorpe Park [2]
Topman [1]
Topshop [1]
The Range – Sussex
Town and Country Cleaners Kent
Wallis [1]
Warwick Castle [2]
Westvic Enamellers – Kent
WHSmith
Whittingtons Silk Flower & Plant Centre – Kent
Wilkinsons

Filed Under: Workers

Balfour Beatty Bosses Forced to Back Down

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Electricians across the country are celebrating their victory against the corrupt bosses of Balfour Beatty. The company was trying to force its workers to sign up to new contracts (BESNA) where they’d get less pay and worse conditions. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balfour Beatty - Corporate Killers, Cuts, Workers

Tesco Twitter Workfare Row: “It wasn’t me, I didn’t do it!”

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Protests this Saturday…

After what can only be described as a Twitter tornado, Tesco has said that the Job Centre Plus advert for an unpaid job at one of their supermarkets was an “IT error”.

The storm kicked off last night as social media users barraged the company’s Facebook page and Twitter hashtag with angry comments.

Terry Leahy: “It was an IT error, honest gov!”

Several users described the practice of employing workers on Job Seekers Allowance as “modern slave labour”, and whilst the marketing people deleted the first few posts from the Tesco Facebook wall they soon gave up fighting the losing battle.

Big supermarkets have come under scrutiny in the last few weeks for paying workers such low wages that staff are often forced to supplement their salaries with government benefits, and a recent Newsnight piece by Economics editor Paul Mason interviewed several employees on the breadline. It seems that the Job Centre advert promising literally no wages at all was the final straw.

“IT Error”

Tesco claimed that the role, advertised as “permanent” was in fact only for three nights, and that anyone employed under the government scheme – working for benefits – would be offered an interview at the end of the trial.

But their PR crisis team has fooled no-one.

Tesco made almost £4 billion in profits last year, whilst CEO Terry Leahy makes upwards of £5 million per year in salary and bonuses.

The company relies on taxpayers to top up the miserly wages it gives to employees, and it seems that far from creating jobs, the company is filling positions with claimants struggling to live on a £1.50 per hour welfare check.

The idea that shelf-filling is “valuable work experience” is a bad joke and interviews are no guarantee of a permanent role once a placement has ended.

#Occupy Tescos

Public pressure and direct action have forced Sainbury’s and Waterstones to abandon the workfare initiative and it’s time Tesco follows suit.

Revolution and other organisations will be calling demonstrations against the company in the next few days.

The message is clear: “stop workfare now or face the consequences!”

 

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Apprenticeships – who benefits?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Exposed! How big business buys government influence

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1 million youth unemployed – enough is enough!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Filed Under: Cuts, Workers Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »
Social Media Integration Powered by Acurax Wordpress Theme Designers

Slider by webdesign