The North London Solidarity Federation would once again like to send out our solidarity to the London cinema workers who have have been fighting an inspiring campaign against low wages and zero hour contracts.
In a city dominated by low-wage service jobs, London's cinema workers have shown that we can fight back and win. In their struggle to secure a living wage, they've gone on strike, spread struggle from cinema to cinema, formed unions, devised media-savvy campaigns and enlisted the help of supportive celebrities.
Cinema is one of the many 'desirable' industries where bosses penalize workers with low wages because they happen to have a job that matches their passion. Well, no more. Cinema workers are fighting to make sure that cinema work pays. And, for that, they have North London SolFed's solidarity and support.
Workers at Lambeth College will enter the fourth week of their indefinite strike soon. UCU members have been out since June3. Tomorrow (Tuesday 24 June) they will be joined by UNISON, who will be striking for three days.
This strike is important for many reasons. Teachers are fighting against changes in their contracts which will drastically worsen their working condition. They are taking action for themselves but also for all future workers in the college – at the moment many of the changes would only affect new employees. In the attack on the workers the management is specifically targeting the unions. They plan to cut 10 posts in ESOL department, where there are 3000 students on the waiting list but also UCU is the strongest.
A fourth International Day of Action saw Westcountry members of the Solidarity Federation take to the streets of Bristol, Dorchester and Swindon in support of a Spanish worker sacked for organising a union branch in his workplace. The worker, a member of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union was fired during a campaign by his colleagues for decent contracts and against illegal outsourcing by ISBAN, a subsidiary of Santander. Solidarity actions took place in 13 countries around the world.
There will be a Solidarity Federation Workplace Organiser Training Day on Saturday, June14th in Newcastle.
If you would like to attend, please email training[AT]solfed.org.uk
The Solidarity Federation workplace organiser training programme is designed to give workers the tools and confidence to organise in their workplaces, whether or not there's an existing union. Even if you've had training from another union, you may find the direct action based approach we adopt offers a fresh perspective.
Whether you've got a union or not, join us for a workshop on how to create strong organisation in your workplace.
Topics include:
making contacts
building a 'shop committee'
cross-union activity
collectivising grievances
workplace mapping
types of direct action
the basics of an anarcho-syndicalist approach
role plays of one-on-ones, group meetings and confronting the boss!
The Ritzy cinema in Brixton was again closed yesterday, 7 June, as workers called another one day strike as part of their ongoing campaign for the London living wage. Workers at the Ritzy, who are members of BECTU, have organised well and shown great solidarity, the cinema has had to close every strike day. The only workers who crossed the picket line yesterday were some painters hired by the Ritzy to do some work for the day, who went in despite being told about the strike.
The Ritzy workers were joined by some of the many local residents who have been very supportive of the strikes, and by Cinema Workers Solidarity, who have been helping with the campaign.
Members of Manchester Solfed held a lively lunchtime picket outside a city centre branch of Santander bank as part of the International Workers’ Association’s international day of action on June 5. The IWA’s coordinated campaign is part of an escalation by the Spanish section, the CNT, in support of a union organiser sacked from one of the bank’ s outsourcing companies. Santander has been transferring thousands of jobs to outsourcing agencies to save costs by minimising the rights and security of its employees.
Saturday's market crowds in Dalston were taught a valuable lesson in solidarity today as a large crowd of supporters marched, sang and shouted their opposition to education cuts all the way from Hackney College to Gillet Square.
Neighbours, students, teachers and friends turned out to support the College staff, who are fighting to stop compulsory redundancies and changes to contracts that will make life impossible for language teachers in the borough.
Joined by workers from Tower Hamlets College and Lambeth College, which are both facing their own attacks by bosses intent on upping margins at the expense of education quality, teachers explained that cuts to college funds had failed to fall at the top of the tree even as courses aimed at the people needing it most lost out on funding to politicians' pet projects, such as short Workfare-related courses which have relatively little impact on skills compared to the more comprehensive courses they replace.
After a short but intense campaign, Marta, a receptionist at the Speak Up London language school, has won a week’s unpaid wages and a glowing reference.
Marta was sacked without reason and without the required one week’s notice. She got in contact with Solidarity Federation who quickly organised over a dozen people to March into the bosses’ office with a letter demanding she be given a week’s pay in lieu of notice and a positive reference.
After Speak Up failed to respond to Marta’s letter, SolFed and other supportive individuals and organisations organised a massive blockade of the Speak Up Facebook page. Hundreds of post appeared within the 45 minutes. An hour and half into the action, Speak Up shut down their Facebook page entirely to all UK users.
The next day SolFed received an email from the bosses at Speak Up: they were paying up. It contained a copy of Marta’s final payslip alongside a copy of a positive reference letter.
The North London Solidarity Federation would like to thank everyone who participated in last night’s Facebook blast of the Speak Up London language school. As it appears Speak Up has deleted their Facebook page entirely, the action was indeed an unqualified success.
The action was to defend Marta, a well-liked and respected receptionist who was sacked without prior warning. She was told she wasn’t doing her job well because she didn’t take out the rubbish one night and then failed to turn on the TV the next morning.
But we all know the real reason: Speak Up is run by two bullying bosses who sack any worker who resists their cowboy style of management.
To compound Marta’s sacking, they refused to give her the pay to which she should have been entitled in lieu of a week’s notice. Marta has demanded that money alongside a glowing review that highlights her lasting contributions to the success of the company.
A fourth International Day of Action saw Westcountry members of the Solidarity Federation take to the streets of Bristol, Dorchester and Swindon in support of a Spanish worker sacked for organising a union branch in his workplace. The worker, a member of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union was fired during a campaign by his colleagues for decent contracts and against illegal outsourcing by ISBAN, a subsidiary of Santander. Solidarity actions took place in 13 countries around the world.
