Elected officer in Unite Bar and Restaurant Workers (personal capacity)

Before the pandemic, workers in the hospitality sector were already facing huge problems. We are one of the most overworked, mistreated and underpaid set of workers. Now, following lockdowns, the sector is facing one of the worst recruitment crises.

The Office for National Statistics reported that between November 2021 and January 2022, empty roles in the sector were at a high of 178,300. This is an increase of 84,000 on that period in the previous year, and a 13.6% increase from the previous quarter.

And it’s only getting worse. I’ve experienced it in my own pub, where we can find staff but we always seem to be one member short. On the one hand, this presents a real problem as the staff that are already overworked will be made to fill the gaps. However, if we are able to organise, it puts us in a very strong position to win demands off the bosses.

This is happening, although still in an embryonic stage. Hospitality workers like myself are organising. The national Unite leaders in our sector are regularly coming together to map priorities for the industry and what is needed to achieve real change. For instance, in London bars and restaurants we’ve highlighted the success of coffee-shop organising in the US, and are looking to replicate that here.

Similar to the industry itself, the activists and lay officials are mostly young workers. Like me, they have only known rampant neo-liberalism – privatisation and deregulation – and extreme austerity, and have been looking for an alternative.

Under the Labour leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, many saw avenues a fightback and got involved in the union to change our industry. Even though Corbyn was defeated in the Labour Party, this mood hasn’t dissipated. Young workers involved in struggle haven’t gone anywhere and Unite Hospitality is a great example of that. We are young workers who see real change is needed for us to live our lives.

That change includes an end to zero hours, £15-an-hour minimum wage without exemptions, safe travel, proper training, consultation on rotas, trade union recognition, and fair tipping policies! But most of all we need socialism!

Ferdy Lyons, Chair of Unite LE1646 bar and restaurant workers, and Youth Fight for Jobs steering committee

On 9 March, hospitality workers in the Unite trade union held a day of action in London highlighting their poor treatment.

It kicked off with a demo outside the newly opened Abandon Ship Bar in Covent Garden.

This was to bring attention to how  the parent company, MacMerry, has mistreated  staff in its Scottish bars. Those workers have raised a collective grievance against the employer, which has lead to one union member being suspended and unceremoniously escorted from one of the bars while on shift.

This was followed by a great show of internationalism, with a joint meeting between Unite Hospitality  and Unite Here (US hospitality union) regarding organising across borders in global hotel chains, and the exchange of organising tactics.

With the delegation sent by Unite Here, we then rallied outside the Chiltern Firehouse, whose owner sacked all the staff at Chateau Marmont, his US hotel in Los Angeles, at the start of the pandemic, and then refused to rehire them once the hotel reopened, even though they were legally obliged to do so.

Unsurprisingly, most of the workers not recalled were Unite Here members and activists.

Hospitality workers are one of the most exploited workforces, and at the rate Unite Hospitality is growing, it’s clear we’ve had enough and want to fight back and make a change.

We need a £15-an-hour minimum wage, an end to zero-hour contracts, safe journeys home, fair tips and equal pay for young workers!

Max McGee, an Usdaw representative and branch secretary at one of Tesco’s distribution depots, is seeking reinstatement after being systematically victimised for standing up for his members. He was given a final written warning on trumped-up charges for which he successfully won a harassment grievance against his line manager. Yet the ruling was upheld regardless.

He was then fired after assisting a pregnant co-worker change a forklift battery, which led to him being electrocuted by faulty equipment. He was brought up on charges of falsifying his injury. But when Tesco was challenged with the first-aider’s report, it simply modified the charge and sacked him for exaggerating his injuries.

The past victories of Usdaw in the depot include a pushback on unsafe business practices, of which this rep played an active role in organising, alongside building a mass grievance in relation to Covid safety and performance, as well as encouraging workers to cite Section 44 to combat these attacks through the union.

The timing of Max’s sacking was not insignificant as it was during an industrial ballot on pay and conditions across a number of Tesco warehouses. Despite Max’s victimisation and sacking, the depot voted overwhelmingly for strike action. This forced Tesco to come back with an improved offer on pay and terms, which members voted to accept.

With Usdaw’s support, Max has exhausted all appeals and is preparing to go to an employment tribunal to overturn the outrageous decision to sack him. The Reinstate Max campaign is keeping up the pressure on Tesco. We can increase Max’s chances of getting some measure of justice whilst making it clear that trade union victimisation will not be tolerated.

Maurice Cooper, York Youth Fight for Jobs, former Tesco worker and Usdaw member said “The firing of Max McGee is a blatant attempt by Tesco management to suppress militant trade unionism at a time when warehouse members were balloting for strike action to keep up with rising inflation. This year Tesco have announced thousands of jobs cuts across stores. We don’t believe it is a coincidence that an Usdaw branch secretary was sacked ahead of disputes between the company and its workforce.

“We in Youth Fight for Jobs campaign fully support the demands that Tesco re-instates Max McGee and furthermore that Tesco improve the conditions of their workers (many of whom are young people such as Max) including decent pay, decent working conditions and for the protection of their rights as members of a trade union. We also call on all Tesco workers of all ages to join USDAW, it is the only way we can fight and win. Solidarity.”

• Organise a protest outside a Tesco store or depot during the 12-18 March week of action and invite Max to speak at your meeting. You can contact Max and send messages of solidarity, as well as order leaflets and posters, at reinstate.max.mcgee@gmail.com
• Can you help support the #Reinstate Max campaign by donating or getting your union branch to donate at gofundme.com/f/reinstate-max-usdaw-rep-socialist

Thank you to all our supporters for Youth Fight for Jobs’ national day of action on Saturday 9^th October. With your support, Youth Fight for Jobs organised marches and protests for young people’s futures in 15 towns and cities across the UK.

While young and working class people have suffered over the course of the pandemic, the billionaires in Britain have increased their wealth be a fifth. Now, Boris Johnson is promising a high-wage, high-skill economy – but we know we’ll only get that through collective workers’ action.

Youth Fight for Jobs took to the streets to demand that instead, big business is made to pay for the crisis. We marched and protested for a £15 an hour living wage, an end to zero hours contracts, for real training and apprenticeship schemes for young people and a mass programme of socially useful and environmentally sustainable job creation. In some areas, we organised flying pickets of businesses notorious for their low wages, poor working conditions and use of zero hours contracts. We are proud to say that we were joined on the day by young workers, students and trade unionists.

Below are a few reports of the day from our supporters on the ground locally.

Bristol

There was a constant stream of people passing by our demo, and it was motivating to see many people stop to talk to us about their frustration with the situation and their desire to find a solution. We had a great turnout from the trade union councils from Gloucester and Bristol.

One 17-year-old worker we spoke to explained the struggles she has experienced while working in retail – not knowing her hours from one week to the next, being made to work while she was ill, and a manager who refused to give her a copy of her contract.

This demo was just the beginning. Young people are becoming more and more disillusioned with capitalism. Now is our best opportunity to spread our message, and fight for socialism.

Glasgow

Glasgow hosted Scotland’s first Youth Fight for Jobs protest of the relaunched campaign. Our city will also soon host COP26.

Fiona Brittle, a member of civil service union PCS, said: “It’s so important for young workers and socialists to mobilise ahead of COP26, to demand significant and meaningful action from the Scottish government to tackle the climate emergency and create secure, well-paid green jobs for a just transition away from the fossil fuel economy.”

“The ruling class have demonstrated for years that they not only don’t care about how climate change, created by their capitalist machinations, threatens the working class, they actively benefit from the opportunity to exploit and squeeze us as a result of climate hardship.

“We need a systemic overhaul to fight the ecological crisis, ensure decent jobs and fair wages for workers, and start to repair the massive harm caused by austerity. And that overhaul must come from workers in solidarity with each other, unionised and organised.”

Leeds

One student said: “We’re made to chase league tables, get the top grades, get a degree, and a masters, then end up in Pret on £8 an hour”

Another attendee said: “These jobs require emotional labour, as someone who struggles to even look people in the eye, what can I do?”.

After marching through the city centre, general secretary of the bakers’ union BFAWU, Sarah Woolley, ended the protest with a rousing call to take the fight to the Tories.

Swansea

Youth Fight for Jobs worked alongside the local trade union council in order to provide a sound system, which allowed young people to speak freely about their experiences. Elliot Vaughan, a recent graduated, spoke about the pressure placed on young people to go to university in order to get a job.

A representative from the CWU said how excited he was by young people standing up for their rights and for a better future, and called for solidarity between young people and workers. A breakout meeting followed the protest, and the discussion continued.

If you’re a young person or trade unionist, and you want to get involved or support any of these marches in your local area, visit youthfightforjobs.com/get-involved

• Birmingham: Victoria Square 1pm (West Mids regional demo)
• Leeds: Millenium Square, 12pm (Yorkshire regional demo)
• London: Assemble outside Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), 1pm
• Liverpool: Top of Church Street (by Bold Street), 12pm
• Leicester: Meet at the Clocktower, 2pm
• Glasgow: Skills Development Scotland, Monteith House, George Square, 1pm
• North East Midlands, Mansfield: Westgate (near Market Place), NG18 1JA, 1pm
• Bristol: Outside McDonald’s, 101/105 the Horsefair, BS1 3JR, 1pm
• Plymouth: Meet at the Sundial Fountain, 1pm
• Cardiff: Outside the Capitol Centre, Queen Street, 12pm
• Swansea: Castle Square, 2pm
• Brighton: Meet at the middle circle of the Level, 1pm
• Southampton: The Bargate, 1pm
• Reading: Assemble at Reading Council Offices, RG1 2LU, 1pm
• Portsmouth: Guildhall Square, 12pm

Joe Waters, Gloucestershire USDAW

Workers at coffee shop chain Pret-a-Manger have won a partial victory over attempts to undermine their pay and conditions after threatening to respond with strike action.

Under cover of “below pre-pandemic levels” of trade for the franchise, bosses had moved to suspend paid breaks for staff and also cut a performance linked bonus for staff from £1 an hour to 50p. Since the prospect of strikes was raised by Pret workers, the company has reversed its decision to cut the bonus pay, but have left in place the scrapping of paid breaks. This means a worker on an 8 hour shift will now see an effective pay cut of 6% (compared to 11% before the partial u-turn). The majority of workers at Pret earn the legal minimum wage of £8.91 an hour.

This attack on staff benefits comes as the coffee chain experiments with a subscription based model for selling coffee, which has put workers under extra strain to meet the increased demand.

The approach taken by Pret bosses, to roll back the conditions of their lowest paid employees in order to protect company profits, is not unique in the current period. Aside from direct attacks on workers through practices like ‘fire and rehire’ and cuts to employee benefits, reductions in staffing levels (or in the case of Pret, a new, subscription based, business model) place extra burdens on workers and effectively require each of them to do more work with no increase in remuneration.

It is in this context that Youth Fight for Jobs is campaigning for trade union action to secure a real future for young people in the workplace, who will bear the brunt of these attacks.

Firms who consider making job cuts should be made to open their books to trade union scrutiny, and nationalisation of companies in order to save jobs should be fought for by the trade union movement.

Training and apprenticeship schemes for young people and government investment in socially useful job creation, in order to guarantee the right to a decent job for all without loss of pay is also vital to building a future for young people and for society.

We also demand that monopolies and banks are taken into democratic public ownership in order to provide every young and working class person with a decent, socially useful and well-paying job. This burden should rightly fall on the 1%, who see it as their right to make big profits off of holding down the pay and conditions of workers. Youth Fight for Jobs will be organising a national day of action for October 9th in order to fight for this programme and demonstrate in practice

Fight for a future for young people!

 

The Youth Fight for Jobs ten point programme:

1. Collective struggle for the right to a decent job for all
2. For a mass trade union led fightback against the jobs slaughter, fire and re-hire and all the bosses’ attacks on workers
3. No to mass youth unemployment – for a mass programme of socially useful and environmentally friendly job creation
4. End low pay. For trade union struggle for a £12 an hour minimum wage as a step towards a real living wage of £15 an hour. Abolish youth rates.
5. Scrap zero hour contracts. End job insecurity 
6. No to bogus training schemes. For real training and apprenticeship schemes, under the democratic oversight of the trade unions, with a guaranteed job at the end for all. Abolish apprenticeship rates – for a living wage and grant for all trainees and apprentices.
7. Wherever job losses are threatened, open company accounts to democratic trade union inspection to show where the money has gone
8. Trade union rights at work from day one
9. For a mass programme of council house building and rent controls
10. Make the 1% pay for the crisis – for democratic public ownership of major industry and the banks to provide us with a future

A major crisis is unravelling in front of young people in Britain today. Our futures – starting with our jobs – are being sacrificed by big business and the pro-capitalist politicians and parties to protect the profits of the super-rich 1%. 

The coronavirus pandemic has already been hard for young people. Retail, accommodation and food services are the biggest sectors employing young people and they’ve have seen the biggest job cuts. So young people have suffered the brunt of job losses over the course of the pandemic, with two thirds of all overall redundancies hitting under 25s. 

We also face growing job insecurity, an explosion of unaffordable housing, the burden of student debt, many of us face discrimination and the environmental catastrophe threatens our future.

That’s why on Saturday 9^th October, Youth Fight for Jobs across the country is organising youth marches for jobs to demand that we are not made to pay for this crisis.

The ending of the furlough scheme in October will mark a new phase of suffering as the bosses, after receiving millions of pounds in furlough money from the Tories, will move to slash our jobs.

Over the course of the pandemic, in Britain the billionaires have increased their overall wealth by a fifth. We say that they should be made to pay for this crisis, not young people and the working class. 

But in order to make them pay, we have to build a mass collective movement to fight for what we, the majority, need. The right to a decent job is essential if we’re to have a future. But under capitalism, where profit comes before all else, no such right can be guaranteed – it has to be fought for. 

We say the kind of struggle we need is a trade union led struggle. With over 6 million members, organised in workplaces across the country, the trade unions are potentially the most powerful weapons in building a mass collective struggle against the attacks of the bosses and the Tories. The potential for collective action has been proved by the many victories striking workers have chalked up in 2021. 

That’s why we campaign for the leaders of our trade unions to throw the full weight of the trade union movement behind the fight against the jobs slaughter, to help organise young workers, and to lead the fightback for decent jobs for all.

But we don’t just need to build a struggle against job cuts, we need to build a mass movement for what young people need for an independent life and decent future. 

That’s why Youth Fight for Jobs fights for a mass programme of government investment into socially useful job creation, under the democratic oversight of the trade union movement, funded by taking the wealth from the super-rich 1%, including through nationalisation of industry and the banks.

But capitalism is a system in which the economy and society is organised to maximise the profits of a tiny handful at the top of society, ahead of the social needs and wants of the majority. 

That’s why we fight not just for a trade union-led struggle against the jobs slaughter, but for a socialist society based on meeting the needs of all.