South London

South London Solidarity Federation is calling a communications blockade against Manpower employment agency on Thursday 29 January.

The action has been called as part of a week of action in support of our sister section, the Polish ZSP, who are involved in taking action within two Polish Amazon dispatch centres that Manpower hires workers for. The workers in these centres are paid 1/4 of the wage of workers in Germany carrying out the same job, are denied paid breaks during 10 hour shifts and receive no extra pay for working evenings and weekends. In addition there have been a series of late or incorrect payments from Manpower whilst pay varies between different centres and between directly employed and agency workers.

A few Solfed members went along to the StopMipim protest this Wednesday. Mipim is an event for local authorities to sell of public property, including social housing, to developers. Boris Johnson was kicking off the event with a speech, encouraging investors and developers to displace communities and gentrify our cities.

MIPIM, the world’s biggest property fair, is coming to London this week for the first time in its 25 year history.

Billed as ‘the first UK property trade show gathering all professionals looking to close deals in the UK property market’, MIPIM will attract huge numbers of financiers, developers & local authorities, all looking to profiteer from UK land and property. This profiteering is creating unaffordable, insecure housing and contributing to the corporate takeover of our community spaces and public services.

South London SolFed stands in solidarity with the Radical Housing Network in opposing MIPIM and demanding a city for people, not for profit.

Flyer for this week's actions is here. For more information, visit radicalhousingnetwork.org.

On Saturday South London Solfed's roaming anti-workfare picket targeted businesses on Lewisham High Street exploiting unpaid labour.

Despite autumn choosing Saturday to finally arrive, a determined group took to the streets in support of Boycott Workfare's week of action. Marks & Spencer, Primark and Poundworld were all picketed, as well as Iceland who have reportedly signed up to the new 'Help To Work' scheme, the newest and most punitive version of workfare yet, involving six months' unpaid traineeships. Information leaflets were distributed to the public, including know your rights advice for those facing workfare placements. Despite the rain there were plenty of positive responses.

Join the South London Solfed roaming anti-workfare picket in Lewisham this Saturday, 4th October, in solidarity with Boycott Workfare's week of action.

Meet us at Lewisham Clocktower at 1pm.

We will be targeting a number of organisations on Lewisham High Street who continue to exploit unemployed people as free labour.

Workfare is an attack on us all. It does not save money, does not create jobs and does not help the unemployed. The government is trying to divide us by pitting those in work against 'scroungers' who supposedly need to forced into work. But workfare is as much an attack on those with jobs as those without. It drives down wages and disciplines those in waged work not to rock the boat lest they be replaced by workfare labour and end up unemployed themselves.

On Sunday 10th August South London Solfed held a pre-Mass information picket at the Swedish Church in London. Members of FAU (our sister section in Germany) have been sacked at the Swedish school in Berlin, run by the Swedish Church. In May, after protesting against a salary decrease, all staff members were sacked. They were told to re-apply for their jobs on worse pay and conditions. 

The dispute is going to the court of appeal on October 17th, in the meantime it is unclear what will happen when term starts on August 18th. The school is not negotiating with FAU or the workers generally.

The CEO of the school is called Lena Brolin and is also the rector of the parish. You can write to her bosses and tell them what you think about these practices:

anders.bergkvist@svenskakyrkan.se + rebecca.kinnander@svenskakyrkan.se

Struggle blog: https://arbetsplatskonflikt.blogspot.com (Swedish/English/
German)

Elena has received her remaining wages! Thank you to everyone involved.

Elena left her job at Green Eco Plus in February as she wasn’t being paid. She managed, through her persistence and some help from friends and Solfed, to get back an initial £300 over a couple of months. After this the director of the company (Chris Rose AKA Kyriacos Pitsillos) told Elena that the company was liquidated (it wasn’t) and he wouldn’t pay the remaining £250.

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.

On Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th of April low-paid workers at the Ritzy cinema launched a second wave of strike action, demanding the London Living Wage (LLW) from their bosses. The current rate for the LLW is £8.80 an hour; the current hourly rate for most Ritzy staff is £7.24, some 18% below the London Living Wage.

The strikes by members of the Broadcasting Entertainment and Cinematography Trade Union (BECTU) have now shut down the popular south London cinema on two occassions, during their busiest trading days. Workers are planning a third strike on the 1st and 2nd of May.

A North London SF member was down at the picket line for the strike at Ritzy Cinema yesterday over the firm's refusal to pay a living wage to staff. Below is their report:

"I got to the Ritzy at about 8pm. I believe there had been a picket line of some form since 9am in the morning. Even though it was at the end of a long day there was still quite a sizeable presence with others probably joining them after work was over, perhaps around 40-50 people.

"For the last hour the samba band Rhythms of Resistance played, the band and a lot of chanting for the living wage drew quite a bit of attention from people passing by (the Ritzy is in a great place if you want to grab
peoples attention). They even marched up and down Brixton High Street a bit. It was a good atmosphere, a lot of energy, quite festival-like with a young crowd.