The pciket line at TGI Friday in Covent Garden, 18.5.18, credit: Claire Laker-Mansfield (uploaded 23/05/2018)
The pciket line at TGI Friday in Covent Garden, 18.5.18, credit: Claire Laker-Mansfield (uploaded 23/05/2018)

The sudden closure of 35 TGI Fridays restaurants, after the company went into administration in September, has left 1,000 workers with no jobs.

The company chief executive claims to be “doing everything possible to retain our team and support those impacted”, while thanking “colleagues” (ie low-paid staff) for their “loyalty and contribution”.

Unite the Union, which represents TGI Fridays workers, should fight now to save the jobs of all the workers affected. Workers at TGI Fridays in Unite have a history of taking action – not least in the fight over tips.

They should demand the bosses ‘open the books’ to trade union inspection. Show the workers what has happened to all the profits generated by their contribution! Starmer’s government should step in. The Socialist Party argues for state subsidies, where genuinely needed, for socially useful small businesses. But big companies should be taken into public ownership and decisions made by the workers, trade unions, the local community, and representatives of local and national government about what happens to the different sites, the services provided and skills of staff. Restaurant sites can be preserved and improved in that way, but if particular sites are not needed, councils should guarantee alternative well-paid useful work, and take over the buildings to run them as local community resources.