Comments on: Youth Fight for Jobs; demo and next steps

By: Campaigning vs. ‘getting something done’ in socialist strategy « Though Cowards Flinch

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:29:15 +0000

[...] done’. My new union is likely to be PCS, which is a strong supporter of YFJ (as am I, for the record) and which carried the following statement on its website: “[YFJ] was unanimously [...]

By: Duncan

Duncan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:53:53 +0000

A few good pics of the day available here:

http://www.demotix.com/news/youth-march-jobs-0

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:05:44 +0000

As it happens I have a post lined up on Tesco’s: the Everton planning decision, Tesco’s PR-based ‘support’ for Phillip Blond’s new Tory think tank (which advocates the break up of supermarkets) and the reality of what’s happening beyond the world of a think tank that Tesco’s are using as a way of ingratiating itself with a prospective new government.

The reality is small store closures at the expense of huge edge of town stores, and compliant shareholders sanctioning the exploitation of agency labour.

By: Leftwing Criminologist

Leftwing Criminologist — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:53:40 +0000

Some of the stores Morrisons have opened are actually re-opened stores they bought off the co-op and a few other companies.

wouldn’t suprise me if the big supermarkets were squeezing the little ones at the moment

By: Dave Semple

Dave Semple — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:34:06 +0000

D’you know, I can’t remember – but I was watching South East Today just two days ago and I was certain they mentioned stuff about some local supermarkets closing. Supermarkets are all posting record profits – certainly the four you mentioned – but individual stores are no safer from closure for that.

And I’m no longer a student, nor work in supermarkets, correct.

By: Leftwing Criminologist

Leftwing Criminologist — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:28:40 +0000

Oh, definitely. I’ver been plugging away for ages, and we’ve managed to get more students joining the union, haven’t found it too hard to get the conversation started in the first place though. (from you using the word was i take it you don;t work in supermarkets any more?)

Which big supermarkets are closing down stores – as far as i’m aware the big four supermarkets (ASDA, Morrisons, Tesco & Sainsburys) are all still growing businesses. Certainly Morrisons is opening new stores up at the moment.

We get the same anti-student gripes in Bangor, so i share your view on that too

By: Dave Semple

Dave Semple — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:41:26 +0000

Oh I know all about the reluctance of students to join the union; I was a student worker at Tesco for about five years, and a member of USDAW. It was notoriously hard even to get discussions going about it.

But I think, with the current threat to jobs, and some of the big supermarkets even closing down some of their stores, that the attitudes even of the people who work a couple of shifts might be changed if the rest of us can give the lead.

It may not happen quickly, but then what ever does?

I’m keen to stress the role that student workers can play because Canterbury faces a large amount of the usual anti-student gripes from residents, and it is a good way to show that students care about the communities in which they live and work – which most of them do.

By: Leftwing Criminologist

Leftwing Criminologist — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:28:41 +0000

On USDAW support for the YFJ,

Robbie Segal a member of the EC is a supporter of the campaign in a personal capacity, and there were several USDAW members on the demo itself.

As for the union itself backing the campaign, I believe the union can only support Labour Party backed campaigns at present (correct me if I’m wrong). Moreover, in my branch in particular we have no branch meetings, this is partly due to the geography of my USDAW branch, but also due to the resistance of union officials. This means as a branch we can’t back the campaign, despite both shop stewards at my store backing the campaign.

Quite a lot of students who work in supermarkets tend to be fairly reluctant to join the union in my experience, partly because they don’t see the need at present when they only do a couple of 4 hour shifts a week.

We do need to change this though, but it isn’t something that we can fix quickly

By: splinteredsunrise

splinteredsunrise — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:45:37 +0000

Well done there! I just spotted it leaving Malet St and wondered what it was, seemed good and lively though. And of course the more union people there the better.