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One of our members has successfully fought for a council house!

Some of you may remember Patrick, who has been organising with us for the past 18 months to try and improve his living conditions. Patrick's dispute started when his letting agency, Youngs, refused to do basic repair works on his seriously dilapidated flat. In January 2018, shortly after requesting these works, Patrick was served with an eviction notice by his landlord, Stephen Mitchell.

Patrick successfully fought this eviction in court. In the meantime, we also pursued the council to serve an improvement notice on Mitchell, in order to legally compel him to carry out these works. Undeterred by the first failed eviction attempt, Mitchell tried again, this time with the help of a solicitor. Under much pressure, the council served an improvement notice on Mitchell, which should have invalidated the second eviction notice.

CJ Barbers owners smash up chair and attack picket line

[CN for assault]

 

On Thursday 20th June, we staged a picket outside of CJ Barbers in Kemptown as part of our ongoing campaign demanding over two months unpaid wages for a former worker. In response to this, the owners of CJ Barbers, Hamid Caram and Cyrus Shabini smashed up a chair and attacked the picket line.

This was a significant escalation of a now familiar tactic of CJ Barbers, which is to assault and attempt to intimidate picket lines. On the Saturday previous to this, Hamid assaulted a female member of Brighton SolFed who was outside of the shop.

Formally complaining to your letting agent

Why complain?

Over the course of a tenancy, you are likely to have reason to complain to your letting agent. Often, repairs take a long time, whilst communication is poor, fees are astronomical, and landlords or agents may be engaging in harassing or intimidating behaviour.

Topic: 
housing

CJ Barbers: intimidation and histrionics fail to impress

CJ Barbers yet again resorted to violence against union members on Thursday as our campaign to get our member’s unpaid wages back continues.

In a remarkable demonstration of aggression, the owner Hamid Karam and the manager Cyrus Shabani smashed up their own wooden chairs in the middle of the road, wielded the remains at picketers, pushed and hit multiple people, and choked one member before throwing him across the street in front of traffic. They also snatched members’ phones out of their hands as they were filming the disgusting behaviour, smashing one phone in the process.

'I was desperate for work, desperate to find a stable career and trade I could rely on': the CJ Barbers worker tells his story

I am writing this to dispel a great deal of misinformation spread about me and my public campaign against CJ Barbers. I am the worker who was exploited by CJ Barbers and I understand why local businesses are coming out in support of their neighbours. I believe this comes from a positive place but I think you should know my side of the story before you come to any conclusions.

'I train people for free because that's how it works': CJ Barbers owner Cyrus Shabani admits to not paying worker

'I train people for free because that's how it works': CJ Barbers owner Cyrus Shabani admits to not paying worker

In this video, the owner of CJ Barbers, Cyrus Shabani, admits to not paying a worker who worked for him for two months, claiming 'that's how it works'. As we have pointed out to CJ Barbers multiple times, that is not how it works. This worker's employment did not meet the standards of an apprenticeship (for which he still should have been paid), so he is owed at least the national minimum wage for the two month's work he has done. That's what we are demanding, and that's what we will continue to fight for until CJ Barbers pay up.

More info on this dispute:

Cambridge SolFed at Strawberry Fair Saturday 1st June 2019

Cambridge Solidarity Federation will have a stall in Scarecrow Corner at this year's Strawberry Fair, 12noon onwards Saturday 1st June, Midsummer Common.

Strawberry Fair is the most popular free, entirely volunteer run, one day music & arts event in Cambridge (and probably across Europe!), attracting over 20,000 visitors throughout the day, running for over 40 years.

In between enjoying the music and the beer tent, call in and see us for some lighthearted anarcho-syndicalist banter.

We should also have info on local grassroots housing campaigns.

 

Cambridge SolFed at Strawberry Fair Saturday 1st June 2019

start: 
Sat, 01/06/2019 - 12:00

Location

Strawberry Fair
Midsummer Common
Cambridge
United Kingdom
See map: Google Maps

Cambridge Solidarity Federation will have a stall in Scarecrow Corner at this year's Strawberry Fair, 12noon onwards Saturday 1st June, Midsummer Common.

Strawberry Fair is the most popular free, entirely volunteer run, one day music & arts event in Cambridge (and probably across Europe!), attracting over 20,000 visitors throughout the day, running for over 40 years.

In between enjoying the music and the beer tent, call in and see us for some lighthearted anarcho-syndicalist banter.

We should also have info on local grassroots housing campaigns.

 

local, network, collective: 
Cambridge
Access Layer: 
Public

Cambridge SolFed at Strawberry Fair Saturday 1st June 2019

start: 
Sat, 01/06/2019 - 12:00

Location

Strawberry Fair
Midsummer Common
Cambridge
United Kingdom
See map: Google Maps

Cambridge SolFed at Strawberry Fair Saturday 1st June 2019

Cambridge Solidarity Federation will have a stall in Scarecrow Corner at this year's Strawberry Fair, 12noon onwards Saturday 1st June, Midsummer Common.

Strawberry Fair is the most popular free, entirely volunteer run, one day music & arts event in Cambridge (and probably across Europe!), attracting over 30,000 visitors throughout the day, running for over 40 years.

In between enjoying the music and the beer tent, call in and see us for some lighthearted anarcho-syndicalist banter.

local, network, collective: 
Cambridge
Access Layer: 
Public

CJ Barbers Dispute: Business Threatens to Blacklist SolFed Member

As our dispute with CJ Barbers, which owes one of our members two months in unpaid wages, continues, and the owners still refuse to negotiate (we emailed them on May 4th, offering negotiations: they didn't reply), the son of one of the owners is publicly saying that they intend to illegally send images and personal details of the worker to “every business in Brighton”.

Kevin Karam, the son of Hamid Karam, has made multiple long and rambling posts about us on Facebook, calling SolFed a “gang”, making wildly contradictory statements about the worker’s status at CJ Barbers, referring to SolFed in general as a “bunch of benefit losers”, etc. It's nothing particularly remarkable - the usual smear campaigns that bosses and their friends try when they are backed into a corner.

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