Young workers are fighting back
William Campbell, Young Socialists
Socialist Party Scotland has just launched its Young Workers Rights Campaign. We aim to highlight the poor working conditions many young people in Scotland face and to encourage young people to organise to fight back with socialist policies.
The casualisation of work has forced many young people, especially those graduating from university and colleges with debt, forced to take up low payed work with no set hours.
The rise of zero-hour contacts have meant there are not set hours for young workers, with many expected to be phoned or texted at any time to work for any number of hours.
This leaves many young workers in a constant state of worry as to whether they will receive enough pay to cover rent, bills and other utilities. However, many of these same young workers have chosen not to sit back and let themselves be exploited.
Recent examples of young workers successfully organising has been seen recently by strike action carried in the food industry at McDonalds and TGI Fridays.
The McDonald’s workers have walked out over the use of zero hours contracts used by regional managers of McDonald’s restaurants who abuse these contracts to squeeze more working hours out of young people for less pay.
Those same workers have also put forward the demand for a £10 minimum living wage. At TGI Fridays, table staff were told with two days notice that 40% of their tips from card payments would be moved towards a ‘central tip pool’.
This would result in wage losses of £60 or £3000 a year. Despite both chains reporting millions in profit ($5.75 billion for McDonalds and £193.5 million for TGI Fridays), they have demanded more hours for less pay.
It was inevitable that young workers would be pushed to take strike action to tackle these injustices. In recent years many studies into the effects of zero-hour contracts have shown that they are more likely to leave employees more financially insecure and stressed.
The hours given under these contracts often prevent workers from taking on education or training programs that could lead them to better employment. They fall into a cycle of low pay with just barely enough money to pay for weekly expenses. Let’s organise together to strike back against the bosses and Tories.
Glasgow Launch meeting
Wednesday 13thJune 7pm
Glasgow Unison Offices
84 Bell Street
