Sunday, 23 December 2012
Monday, 10 December 2012
Anti-Workfare Pickets Glasgow Report
On Saturday 8th December as
part of the Boycott Workfare Week Of Action a couple of dozen people
from Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World, the Crutch
Collective, Glasgow Anarchist Federation, Glasgow Solidarity
Federation, the Right To Work Campaign and other individuals
leafleted a branch of Superdrug in one of the city centre's busiest
streets. The one thousand leaflets given out highlighted Superdrug
taking on even more people on the Government's 'Work Experience'
workfare scheme for the Christmas period. The extra people on
workfare means less holiday pay for the regular staff. There was a
lot of police about and Superdrug had hired extra security for the
day. However the combination of the picket, the leaflet saying,
'Don't Shop At Superdrug' and the added security costs meant we
succeeded in our objective of costing Superdrug money for using
Workfare. Thanks to everyone who took part. Apparently someone also
left placards saying 'Superdrug + Unpaid Work = Superdrudgery'
outside their other city centre branch.
The picket also attracted some media
attention from local journalists. The Sunday Mail, with a reported
readership of around one million, mentioned the Edinburgh, Dundee and
Glasgow protests, and their article, 'Big Businesses Taking On
Jobless Young People To Work Unpaid Over Christmas', helped get our
general message across to a larger audience. It appears to contain
some useful information on the extent of Workfare involvement of a
number of companies, but it also includes some of the distortions of
the reality of Workfare by these companies and the Department for
Work and Pensions. We would have to question if the newspaper
verified any of the information in the statements of the the Workfare
companies and the D.W.P.
The Superdrug distortions - 'Work
Experience' is not voluntary in practice. Job Centre Plus and third
party workfare profiteers like A4E bully benefit claimants on to the
scheme. Benefit claimants can have their benefits cut if they do not
not continue to 'volunteer' to stay on the scheme, after they have
been on the scheme for a week. Only a tiny number of people on
workfare get jobs afterwards. For example it is 3.5% for the 'Work
Programme' and that includes participants getting jobs with other
companies and very short-term jobs. Stacking shelves for Superdrug is
not learning a skill. Argos state that 'Work Experience' people work
alongside paid colleagues, but don't replace them, but the permanent
staff lose out on holiday pay. Why aren't all of their temporary
staff paid? Of the 25% Poundland say left their 'work experience'
early, because they received a job offer elsewhere, how many were
going to get offered a job anyhow? Poundland also put a positive spin
on 10% going on to get jobs with them, but that means 90% do not,
while Poundland continue to make profits from all the unpaid labour.
We brought forward the time of the
picket so that people could take part in he UK UnCut Starbucks demo
in Glasgow. UK UnCut have been making the links between tax
avoidance, cuts to public services and their impact on women. The
Starbucks PR machine has gone into overdrive saying that they will
pay a few more peanuts in tax in the next couple of years based on
their own estimates while they don't mention all the unpaid tax from
the past in their media releases. It has been revealed that the tax
payments will be paid for by cuts to the terms and conditions of the
Starbucks staff. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is looking for
volunteer organisers to help them organise Starbucks staff to fight
these cuts c/o -
PO Box 7593, Glasgow G42 2EX
One person did manage to get inside the
Sauchiehall Street coffee shop with leaflets, but there was too many
police for a Refuge from the Cuts to be set up in this branch of
Starbucks. The demo moved on to create a noisy presence with cake
outside the Starbucks on Buchanan Street, another one of the main
shopping streets in Glasgow.
From there a few people went on to
picket the city centre furniture store of the British Heart
Foundation. The manager of the store aggressively told us we needed
a permit to hand out leaflets. This is another fake claim from BHF.
When we told him we didn't need one he told us he was then going to
ring the police and he stropped off phone in hand. Of course the
police never arrived. A customer said that the manager said we
were talking 'shit', but at the same time the manager had confirmed
that that they do use Workfare in that store. BHF have had 1500
placements on 'Mandatory Work Activity' and the 'Work Programme'.
Despite BHF claims, the schemes are not voluntary. BHF must know the
meaning of the word, 'mandatory'. All workfare companies have to
sign a contract saying that they will report anyone who does not show
up for the schemes, which automatically results in benefit claimants
having their benefits cut. BHF have vaguely stated that are 'moving
away' from workfare at some unspecified point in the future, but
hopefully this picket and others will bring their use of workfare to
a halt sooner rather than later. They have been pressurised in to
making another public statement, which could be a sign that they are
about to cave in.
We are already making plans for a
bigger Anti-Workfare campaign in the new year.
Claimants Resisting Unfair Treatment
Cuts and Harassment
A group of benefit claimants and
supporters in Glasgow
Hopefully we will have photos of the
picket here soon.
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Superdrug
are taking on more people on the Government's 'Work Experience'
workfare scheme for Christmas.
It's
good for the bosses and their profits.
But
bad for unemployed people on the scheme who don't get paid.
It's
also bad for other workers who lose out on holiday wages.
Workfare
is an attack on us all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)