Ritzy Cinema staff strike against poverty pay.
Guido | 26.05.2007 18:26 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London
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All the staff are part time except for the chief projectionist and the assistant and general managers. The staff in the café do not leave work at weekends until after 1 am with most ushers finishing after 12. Despite these unsociable hours the management are still refusing to budge from their slave wage offer. The latest deal on the table is an insulting rise from £5.35 to £5.42! Alternatively the staff have been offered £5.50 without their sales bonus.
Unsurprisingly the staff have voted unanimously to hold strike action and today was the first day. The action was timed to coincide with first night of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ so some of the protesters dressed accordingly. There was also a drumming band to liven things up and it has to said that the picket line was loud and well attended. The management have brought in scab labour from their head office to fill the gaps. How they will cope remains to be seen. They have also started trying to intimidate the staff over the strike.
Please show your support by emailing
ritzy@picturehouses.co.uk to say that you will be boycotting this cinema until they start paying their staff properly. And finally….
Guess which letterbox-mouthed barrister represented the management in their bid to defy the human rights act by not recognizing the union?
Please send your answers on a postcard to ‘Cherie Booth Competition’ ,10 Downing Street, London, W1
Guido
e-mail:
guidoreports@riseup.net
Additions
More Photos and Ritzy Staff Petition
27.05.2007 17:04
Strikers at the Bixton Oval
Strikers in high spirits ... despite crap working conditions!
Strikers collecting signatures from passers by to support their demands ...
... which many Brixton locals did actually sign ....
... whilst others stopped to hear about the striker's demands.
Striker with a t-shirt pointing at the poverty line
And so the Ritzy wasn't as busy as it would usually be on a Saturday ...
.. which probably made a cut on City Screen's takings for the day :-)
"They Charge London Rates, But Don't Pay London Rates
The Ritzy is owned by City Screen Ltd, notorious low-payers of the cinema world.
Currently on the minimum wage of £5.35, Ritzy staff have been in ongoing negotiations about pay through BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union)
In a final attempt to resolve the issue, Ritzy staff proposed a 3-5 year pay settlement to bring us closer to the living wage.
The living wage is currently set at £7.28 per hour, the amount needed to comfortably live in London.
City Screen stated they would never pay the London poverty wage of £6.25 per hour (as set by The Greater London Authority).
The poverty line is the minimum amount needed in order to survive living in London and takes into account increased living costs such as utilities and transport.
We are taking industrial action because we feel undervalued in the workplace and overworked due to a reduction in man-hours. This has a knock-on effect to costumers who receive a lower quality of service. We feel that this is unacceptable and urge you to support us in our fight to re-establish the quality and values that London's Best Neighbourhood Cinema (Living London Award 2006) was built on!."
Please support us by signing our petition below, and please email it to City Screen at:
enquires@picturehouses.co.uk - please CC email to ritzystaff@yahoo.co.uk I Support the Ritzy Cinema staff in their right to take action for a fair wage on or above the poverty line. I expect City Screen to resolve this issue by reopening negotiations and acknowledging the poverty wage in any future pay offers.
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