Ian Pattison, Youth Fight for Jobs
Youth Fight for Jobs has launched its new Sick of Your Boss initiative.
A growing number of people, particularly young people, are underemployed, on top of the millions who can’t find work at all.
Zero-hour contracts, unpaid breaks, no holiday rights – that’s the type of work on offer in Con-Dem Britain.
Sick of Your Boss kicked off in central London on Thursday 21 March with a protest outside Starbucks.
Starbucks attempts to promote a friendly-employer image, but we know the reality is very different.
Pay your tax!
When Megabucks Starbucks was revealed to not have paid a penny of tax in the UK over three years, under pressure the company agreed to cough up.
But to make up for it the bosses attacked workers’ rights – withdrawing holidays and maternity rights.
In the run up to the protest Youth Fight for Jobs activists in London gave out thousands of leaflets, walking straight into shops, food courts and shopping centres, speaking to workers about the issues important to them.
On Sunday 24 March, Sick of Your Boss’s first public meeting brought together young underemployed workers from across London at the Unite the Union Community Centre in Tower Hamlets.
Making plans
We discussed the demands of the campaign, our rights at work, but most importantly, how we can get organised in unorganised workplaces.
We talked about the importance of all workers joining and getting active in a trade union such as Unite, and for the unions to take seriously the task of organising precarious workers.
We agreed to hold a series of meetings across London over the next couple of months in areas where many underemployed, often unorganised, people work.
The first meeting will be in Oxford Street where there are many clothes shops and fast food restaurants as well as private language colleges where teaching staff are forced onto zero-hour contracts. We will also organise protests targeting the worst bosses.