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IWW Cleaners' demo at John Lewis's

anon@indymedia.org (IWW) | 25.06.2012 14:55 | London

On Saturday 23 June over a hundred people attended a demonstration organised by the IWW Cleaners' Branch in front of the John Lewis flagship store on Oxford Street. John Lewis prides themselves in caring for the well-being of their employees and sharing the profits of the company with them. Unfortunately, through outsourcing the company frees itself from this commitment with its cleaning staff.

Employed through a contractor, the cleaners are on the minimum legal wage of £6.08 per hour. They are threatened with 50% of redundancies with the remaining staff potentially covering all additional work. The workers cannot tolerate this. They demand the London Living Wage of £8.30 per hour. They say 'no' to redundancies and 'no' to increase in their workload. The protest on Saturday was called to make these demands as well as making the public aware of the dismal work conditions prevailing for cleaners in this company that so prides itself of its corporate responsibility.

A crowd of workers as well as people in solidarity turned up and made a lot of noise in front of the store for two hours. There were speeches from the members of the IWW Cleaners Branch, representatives of other IWW branches, other unions including PCS and RMT, and a Labour MP John McDonnell.

The strength of the union is the strength of the workers coming together to put pressure on the bosses. Today's demonstration, with its large crowd and energetic atmosphere was a great show of strength. The workers are balloting for strike action at John Lewis and will continue with weekly demonstrations until their demands are met.

reposted from IWW site - see link below:

anon@indymedia.org (IWW)
Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12457

Comments

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Bit late

25.06.2012 15:07

Cleaners at John Lewis have been contractors since 1968, I think you may be a little late with this protest.

Mum worked at John Lewis

Not true

26.06.2012 09:41

++++++ Employed through a contractor, the cleaners are on the minimum legal wage of £6.08 per hour. +++++++

This is not true. John Lewis contracted cleaners start on £6.08 per hour for their probation period of two months after this they are raised up to the £8.30 per hour London living wage, something that was agreed upon with Unite over nine months ago. The IWW has attempted to get some cheap and easy publicity for a cause that does not exist.

The IWW does not represent the views of John Lewis contract cleaners.

Shop Steward
Homepage: www.unitetheunion.org

£8.30 per hour !!!!!!!!!

26.06.2012 13:24

People think that is a reasonable amount of money for cleaning toilets etc ???

The CEO of John Lewis Group earns nearly £800,000 per year which is equal to £320 per hour and you can't convince me he is worth more than a cleaner.

We need to get out on the streets and seize back these companies from their 'owners' and give them to the people.

It's our company (at least it should be)

God save us from Socialists

26.06.2012 16:35

Yes because of course society values the skills of the CEO of a major retail chain exactly the same as a cleaner doesn't it. Has it occured to you the CEO might be WORTH more than the cleaner in terms of what he contributes to the bottom line compared to the cleaner ?

Korin

IWW fighting

27.06.2012 11:09

The IWW seems to be the only union actually fighting for more! The rest are just negotiating cuts (but not in the union bosses wages & pensions)

Person

CEOs are nothing special

27.06.2012 11:41

Quite simply Korin, no. No-one is worth £320 an hour (actually it's £426, assuming the very unlikely scenario that he's only on 28 days' holiday a year), because that's the equivalent of putting 53 people's labour and intelligence on one job. Could he match that on his own? Of course he fucking couldn't, he's a normal person with a good line in hoodwinking credulous numpties like you, not Superman.

Unite "shop steward", hey loving the solidarity mate. I'm not a Wobbly but that kind of sectarian point-scoring makes me think of joining.

Rob

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Fighting for more ?

27.06.2012 13:03

How is the IWW fighting for more ? They are running a campaign to get workers something they already have !

Cheap publicity stunt and nothing more.

Union man

You are judging based on your own abilities

27.06.2012 13:11

"Quite simply Korin, no. No-one is worth £320 an hour because that's the equivalent of putting 53 people's labour and intelligence on one job. "

>>> You are confusing labour time with value. A doctor is valued more highly by society than a dustman because only some people have the ability to be a doctor while just about anybody can be a dustman. It's the same here.

You might not like the fact but a fact it remains, there is only a small percentage of the population able to do certain jobs and they are rewarded accordingly where that skill adds value - for example:

Airline pilot
Heart Surgeon
Barrister
Football player

This is basic economics and I am surprised you need it explained to you.