bars, catering, hotels and restaurants

You’ve just made your 300th flat white of the day, you’ve been on your feet for the best part of 9 hours, you’re fucking knackered and a customer has just come back and wants their almond milk ice latte remade. You are a hospitality worker in London.

Hospitality work is often badly paid and tears at your soul having to smile and say thank you to someone who likely makes 5x your wages and doesn’t leave a tip.

With growing inequality it feels especially brutal as with the gentrification of London you often have to serve the very people who are also pushing you out of your neighbourhood and bars, cafes and restaurants are part of their playground as you just try to cover your rent.

If you regularly follow our activity probably you have realised that the housekeeper campaign is no longer active. This article aims to explain you what we tried to do, what we did and why the campaign is now on hold.

The housekeepers' campaign tried to expose the problems of workers in the tourist industry in Brighton through one of the hardest positions in the sector: those who clean every room in Brighton after a wild party, a family weekend or a romantic night. The idea of the campaign was to generate a discussion around working conditions in hostels, hotels and guest houses.

Manchester Solidarity Federation carried out a successful picket outside Laibaz restaurant in Bolton on Saturday 24th September. The picket was part of the campaign Manchester SF is organising against the owner of the restaurant who owes ex-employees thousands of pounds in unpaid wages. The picket was a real success with a number of people who had planned to eat at the restaurant refusing to cross the picket line. Throughout the picket we had people stopping to offer support with several people sharing their experiences of being mistreated at work. We also collected details of one person who wanted to get involved in the campaign. The local newspaper took pictures of the picket and interviewed one of the ex-employees.

Manchester Solidarity Federation has been in dispute with Laibaz restaurant in Bolton since the beginning of July over wage theft, below minimum wage pay rates and other matters - see earlier post below. 

The campaign has included a number of demand letters backed up with two successful phone blockades aimed at preventing take away orders. In the light of Sunar Alom's refusal so far to enter negotiations to resolve the dispute, Manchester SF has escalated its actions against Laibaz over the weekend of August 20th/21st. A 3rd phone blockade on the evening of the 20th has been followed up with a postering campaign in the vicinity of Laibaz.

Brighton SolFed has started a public campaign against Imperial Hotel. This hotel owes a former worker part of his wages, including his notice pay, holiday entitlement, money stolen from his pay, and sick pay. The worker started at the hotel in February 2015, on a 40 hours contract.

While he was working in another hotel, which is also owned by the owner of Imperial, on what should have been his day off, the worker sustained an injury to his finger. As a result, he stayed off sick from work for one month. He did not receive any sick pay or compensation. The manager told him that he could not claim anything because he had been working for less than one month when it happened and because it was his fault.

What: Pret a Manger communications blockade

When: Thur 29th November, 2:00 - 4:00pm

In an effort to show solidarity to Andrej and PAMSU, we are requesting that supporters:

Call, email, and text Pret on the 29th November between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00pm demanding that Andrej be reinstated and that Pret stop victimising all union members.

Ops Manager Magda:  07557 742 317, magda.kielbowicz@pret.com

Ops Manager Thomas:  07557 160 694, tom.sugarman@pret.com

Press Office: 020 7802 2626, pret@lewispr.com

St. Pancras Pret (ask for the manager): 020 7932 5225, UK0225@pret.com

What: Pret a Manger communications blockade

When: Wed 28th November

Since forming the Pret a Manger Staff Union earlier this year, Andrej and a number of other workplace activists have faced a campaign of harassment and victimisation from management.  For Andrej, this has reached a point where he has been sacked on trumped-up disciplinary charges.  His final appeal hearing against the decision will occur on Thursday the 29th of November at 2:00pm.

In an effort to show solidarity to Andrej and PAMSU, we are requesting that supporters:

Please bombard Pret's Facebook page with messages in support of Andrej