Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/362/5950
From The Socialist newspaper, 18 September 2004
Pay Us A Living Wage
WE WILL be targeting Jack Fulton's, a cheap frozen food shop, on the ISR day of action. Fulton's are paying 16 and 17-year-olds £2.80 an hour: even less than the measly £3 per hour minimum wage that the government is planning to introduce on 1 October.
Colin Wray, from Sheffield ISR
We'll be making sure that the management are embarrassed when their poverty pay is exposed. We will have big billboards and a megaphone.
As well as giving out leaflets and letting people who are going past know how low Jack Fulton's wages for under-18s are, we will be talking to workers in the shop to give them our support.
But Jack Fulton's isn't the only shop paying low wages and many employers who pay higher wages still treat young workers badly.
We will be explaining to everyone we talk to that if we want better wages and better conditions at work we need to get organised together to fight for them.
Sheffield ISR has been outside FE colleges and sixth forms during induction week, campaigning to get people along on the day of action.
John Ratcliffe from Norton College
We did stalls campaigning on low pay, against the occupation of Iraq and other vital issues.
We handed out a newsletter to show what ISR is about with articles on fees, PFI, low pay, Iraq and the BNP, all written by local members. Now we have several people who are interested in getting involved and at least one who wants to come to meetings.
Downing street protest
School students in London have been pleased to see ISR members leafleting outside their schools. Some even commented: "You'd never see Tony Blair coming down here - he knows we'd give him a piece of our minds".
So ISR members are going to take their protest to Blair in Downing Street, where they will be handing in a petition with hundreds of signatures collected over the last few weeks. They will be highlighting the terrible conditions many young people are working in.
The petition demands an increase in the minimum wage and an end to exemptions and lower rates for young people. It also demands trade union rights from day one of starting a new job: ISR will be encouraging as many young people as possible to join a trade union as part of the struggle to improve pay and conditions for all.
For copies of the petition against low pay, contact ISR:
PO Box 858, London E11 1YG
Tel: 020 8558 7947
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In The Socialist 18 September 2004:
TUC Delegates Give Thumbs Down To Blair
Behind New Labour's Power Struggle
International socialist news and analysis
Bush Sinks Deeper In Iraq Quagmire
Nigerian Workers Must Fight Anti-Union Law
Anger, Bitterness And Increasing Opposition in Germany
Socialist Party campaigns
Big Macs Can Seriously Damage Your Health
Swansea IT Workers Determined To Win
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