Picket - CANCELLED - London Bridge - VICTORY!

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#1
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markov's picture
markov
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Nov 23 2011 14:40
Picket - CANCELLED - London Bridge - VICTORY!

EDIT: Picket Cancelled! Lauras been paid in full thanks for your support!

South London Solidarity Federation are organising a campaign against this pub after an ex-employee asked for our assistance. Laura had her contract terminated after she refused to work because she hadn't been paid for 6 weeks, that is over £700 she has had to live without since mid September. They have had numerous opportunities, broken many promises, ignored calls, not replied to emails and have sent her round in circles passing responsibility between themselves. It was only after Laura contacted us and mobilised friends and family to support her that they paid around half the money she was owed. She is yet to receive the full amount.

We are also asking for our supporters and comrades to show solidarity with this campaign by phoning and emailing complaints on the day of the picket. The details are below:

This is a situation many of us find ourselves in at some point at work. Not being paid for shifts or long periods of time is such a common occurrence that it is often seen as a trivial matter. With the prospect of going round in circles with managers or time consuming legal proceedings, it is easy to let them win. But by taking direct action together with our workmates, friends and family we can improve our working conditions and our lives.

We want to hear from any current or previous employees that have come into conflict with this company or its owner. We know that this is not an isolated incident and the more people get involved, the more pressure we can put on the company to start treating its workers properly.

Solidarity Federation is a non-hierarchical organisation that seeks to build a future without capitalism and exploitation. We believe that supporting each other in our day to day struggles is one way we can lay the foundations of a better world.

Nearest tube/rail station is London Bridge

#2
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Pikel's picture
Pikel
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Nov 22 2011 22:00

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/mandeep-dhillon/26/73b/33

Owner has other drinks outlets that could be targeted:

http://www.potionbar.co.uk/

Quote:
Not being paid for shifts or long periods of time is such a common occurrence that it is often seen as a trivial matter.

I'm sure Mr Dhillon never has to wait six weeks for some cash. Who thinks it's trivial? Set them right!

#3
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Arbeiten's picture
Arbeiten
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Nov 22 2011 22:17

bloody hell Pikel, you got on that extra info pretty quick!

#4
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Pikel's picture
Pikel
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Nov 22 2011 22:21

It speaks to the revolutionary power of idleness and boredom!

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Ed's picture
Ed
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Nov 23 2011 09:21

Good stuff guys! I can't make it down but I'll be emailing in to make myself a nuisance..

#6
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Pikel's picture
Pikel
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Nov 23 2011 19:38

That was quick, well done! Did I swing it with my quick-draw googling?

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no1
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Nov 23 2011 19:41

well done!

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Ramona's picture
Ramona
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Nov 23 2011 19:51

Get in there!

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plasmatelly's picture
plasmatelly
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Nov 23 2011 20:06

Well done!

#10
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MT
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Nov 23 2011 20:56

cool!! 2 days and it's solved? twisted am eager to read the after"struggle" analysis similar to the OA case!

#11
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JoeMaguire's picture
JoeMaguire
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Nov 23 2011 21:01

The threat of collective action, no boss wants to feel it laugh out loud

#12
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MT
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Nov 23 2011 21:11

well, we have heard about a case of unpaid wage when a person said the boss will face Priama akcia (without us knowing about it) and suddenly agreed to pay. which is very funny because we didn't have chance to engage in any "serious" actions, so perhaps the website content worked?! we will try to learn more soon, perhaps it is just nonsense. but i can imagine that winning without fighting will be sometimes the case in anarchosyndicalist work.

#13
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lzbl's picture
lzbl
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Nov 23 2011 21:23

WOOP!

#14
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Choccy's picture
Choccy
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Nov 23 2011 21:51

Yes! Brilliant news! smile

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Joseph Kay's picture
Joseph Kay
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Nov 23 2011 22:16

Great stuff

#16
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wojtek
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Nov 28 2011 23:25

Well done! Wage theft seems to be quite a common thing. A friend and an ex-colleague of mine have in the past had their wages held back. Fortunately though in both bases, mere threats of court action via strongly worded letters proved suffice.

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Nov 28 2011 23:33

The best thing about this case, as I understand it, is that after talking with SLSF Laura took it upon herself to organise various direct action like communications blockades, which meant by the time an SLSF picket was announced the boss was already ready to give in. We've talked a lot about the potential for SF to act as a catalyst for self-organised direct action like this. We've had some smaller, similar examples in Brighton but nothing which went public, but it's great to see it happening, and successfully too. The theory is that doing this helps build a wider culture of resistance well beyond SF as well as building capacity and organisation to take on such fights.

#18
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wojtek
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Nov 28 2011 23:51

So it was mostly her family and friends that were involved, not Solfed? I got the impression that actions such as these were supposed to be an 'anarchists only' sort of thing, which seemed rubbish, but I can see now that I was way off the mark...

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Pikel's picture
Pikel
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Nov 28 2011 23:52

Yeah it is a very positive picture you've painted, Joseph Kay.

#20
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Joseph Kay's picture
Joseph Kay
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Nov 28 2011 23:56

As I understand it, yeah, although I think SFers were involved too. Certainly we always aim to get people to involve their friends and family involved, but it's not often that is enough to almost win it in its own right. I'm not in South London SF so don't know details (or how much is public info), but I think they met up and talked about Office Angels and the tactics used, delivered the demand letter and then Laura cracked on with it, with the threat of an SF picket being held in reserve.

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Nov 29 2011 07:34
wojtek wrote:
So it was mostly her family and friends that were involved, not Solfed? I got the impression that actions such as these were supposed to be an 'anarchists only' sort of thing, which seemed rubbish, but I can see now that I was way off the mark...

Glad the misconception has been cleared up, but what gave you that perception?

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wojtek
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Nov 29 2011 18:19
Quote:
Quote:
I wrote:
So it was mostly her family and friends that were involved, not Solfed? I got the impression that actions such as these were supposed to be an 'anarchists only' sort of thing, which seemed rubbish, but I can see now that I was way off the mark...

Chilli Sauce wrote:
Glad the misconception has been cleared up, but what gave you that perception?

I remember one of the recent discussions on here about the IWW and reading that unlike AFed/Solfed, they weren't really concerned about people's politics since they're not a revolutionary union*. Also, the obvious fact that Solfed want to build their organisation (which I'm still a bit paranoid about even though I'm hanging around with them), but as I've said JK's reply as well as his posts on the 'A discussion around the Office Angels campaign' thread here and here have cleared it up for me.

*Sorry if I've got that wrong, I need to read up on revolutionary syndicalism

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Chilli Sauce's picture
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Nov 29 2011 18:37

Yeah, well some in the IWW might have political reasons for stating such things...

Regarding SF, this is how we put it in the workplace organiser training:

We are consciously trying to build a self-organised workers movement. We do this through the creation of independent 'workplace committees' made up of militant workers who seek to identify winnable workplace grievances and tackle them through direct action. By building on small victories, we grow our committee, and take on larger grievances. These committees link through industrial networks to share tactics, develop strategy, and eventually begin taking on industry-wide issues.

The other advantage to this committee model is that it gives us, as revolutionaries, a way to reach out to and organise along our non-radical workmates. If folks join SF in the process, great! Fundamentally, however, it is this struggle—based in the workplace and around material conditions—politicises workers and provides us, as radicals, the space to begin talking about capitalism and class struggle.

#24
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wojtek
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Nov 29 2011 19:31

Yeah that sounds very agreeable, thanks for the clarification.