The Socialist 10 July 2013

Miliband dances to Tory tune

Miliband dances to Tory tune

Unite meets roadblock in New Labour

Stop Gove's school profits plans

Them & Us

Strong support for fighting socialist alternative in CWU

Lobby the TUC for 24-hour strike!

PCS Young Members Network forum

Werrington Royal Mail dispute

The costs of privatisation - to the workforce

Workplace news in brief

Egypt: Morsi removed - polarisation grows

Portugal's government on the ropes again

Are you sick of... Low pay?... Zero hour contracts?... Job insecurity?... bullying bosses?...

Lifting the lid on the bedroom tax horror

Birmingham Labour councillors' promises

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Rebel councillor faces further suspension

Fund the fight for a socialist alternative to capitalist austerity

Privileged perks for Kate and Wills... Maternity cuts for us!

Unite and Labour - it's time for a rethink!

Inside the banking system

Piper Alpha: The price of profit -167 workers' lives

Review - The Pitmen Painters

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Are you sick of... Low pay?... Zero hour contracts?... Job insecurity?... bullying bosses?...

Join the protests!

Helen Pattison, London Youth Fight for Jobs

Sick of Your Boss (Click to enlarge)

Young workers are fed up with poor working conditions, poverty pay, zero-hour contracts and the lack of security at work.

Nearly 30% of young workers need more hours to cover rising living costs. 90% of people who started claiming housing benefit in the last two years have a job. Real wages have dropped by 7.5% in five years.

Big business is making more and more money paying staff well below a living wage, these workers get messed around and bullied.

Sick of your boss activity in Topshop in Bristol, photo by Kyle Williamson (Click to enlarge)

One of the worst offenders is Primark, which made £356 million in profits last year while paying shop workers little above minimum wage - that's when they're not using the Con-Dems' workfare schemes to pay them nothing at all!

But after Usdaw union members in Northern Ireland Primark branches voted to take strike action, they won a small but important pay increase - showing we don't have to just accept things, and a lot more can be won.

Fast food workers in the US are organising and striking against poverty wages, bullying management and the lack of job security - with better pay and conditions won at a pizza chain.

The Sick Of Your Boss initiative, organised by Youth Fight for Jobs, informs people of their existing legal rights - often ignored by employers - and helps them to join trade unions to organise in their workplace and build the campaign against bullying and for decent pay.

Week of action

A Sick Of Your Boss week of action started on 6 July. Protests are planned for outside Primark branches across the county.

These protests highlight the treatment of staff in Britain, but will also be held in solidarity with garment workers in Bangladesh who have taken strike action following the collapse of an unsafe garment factory that killed hundreds of workers.

Campaigners have spoken to young workers at shops, restaurants, pubs and call centres about how they can organise.

In London we've been simply walking into shops and leafleting and speaking to staff while they are at work.

We've had a brilliant response. For example, we've spoken to an Usdaw shopworkers' union member about getting more new staff into the union, and a young woman who wanted to know how to join a trade union and how to organise in her workplace.

So join the protests and meetings in your area, show Primark enough is enough! We want decent wages and working conditions around the world. Get involved with Sick Of Your Boss, join a trade union and join the fightback!