Mike Cleverly, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
Many Wilko workers and shoppers will feel a nightmare repeating itself. Wilkinsons, the name until a rebranding in 2018, took over many of the stores left empty by the collapse of Woolworths, which went bust following the 2008 financial crisis. Now, Wilko staff face the nightmare of redundancy as the business prepares to enter administration if no buyer can be found.
Wilko staff know that the owners paid themselves £2.25 million in dividends in the year to the end of January, and took another £750,000 in February!
Last year Wilko closed fifteen stores and since 2021, 1,600 jobs have already gone, leaving about 12,400 potentially facing the dole queue.
I regularly shop at my local Wilko store in Walthamstow, east London. I’ve noticed big gaps on the shelves for many months. Today the atmosphere was sombre, gone were the friendly smiles after staff learned of the risk to their jobs on the news! An enquiry as to how the staff are taking the news was met with a shrug: “We can only wait and see!”
I also noticed extra management drifting about and felt that staff were nervous about talking about their plight to customers like myself.
Wilko distribution workers are represented by the GMB union, they will also lose their jobs if the company goes under. Why should Wilko workers, whose hard work earned the payouts to the company’s owners right up to February this year, be the ones to pay?
The Socialist Party campaigns, wherever bosses say they need to get rid of hard-working staff, for companies to open the books to trade union inspection. To see where the money has gone and how the networks and buildings could be put to use to save workers’ jobs. If a buyer is found that demands shops are shut and workers lose their jobs, we support workers organising and fighting to save their livelihoods. And, if not, the company should be nationalised and put in the hands of workers themselves to be democratically run.
