On Friday 18th March, members of Solfed informed parents of Dartford Primary Academy, part of the Leigh Academies Trust, about the ongoing campaign to get Lydia’s wages back. Lydia worked for Kinder Sports, who are contracted by Leigh Academies Trust to provide Physical Education lessons and after school sports coaching. Lydia worked for Kinder Sports for 30 hours between 6th and 30th of October 2015 (including at Dartford Primary Academy) however she has not been paid for this work. We are supporting Lydia in demanding Kinder Sports pay her the full £360 she is owed.
Jimmy's restaurant continues to refuse to repay its former workers over £1500 in stolen holiday pay, nor return their P45s. After contact with the initial three workers, and their friends who either have worked for or continue to work for the restaurant, we can see that their case is all but unique. Jimmy's is refusing to treat its employees with respect and we will keep fighting until they do so.
Hear from members of Brighton Hospitality Workers, a Solidarity Federation campaign that has claimed thousands in owed wages for hospitality workers through direct action solidarity. They will discuss the challenges of organising in a sector where casualisation and wage theft are commonplace, the best approaches for winning disputes and how this fits into an anarcho-syndicalist strategy of workplace organisation.
At the end of January some of our members joined a demonstration against the privitisation of another NHS service; patient transport. This ambulance service is being privitised to cut costs by the joint Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG’s), who decide how to spend the health budget locally. The demonstration was timed before a CCG meeting to show anger at the imminent sell-off.
Not only is this another dismantling of the NHS and introducing profiteering into healthcare; there are potentially large job losses, changes to terms and conditions for those transferred, changes of criteria for patients eligible for the services and no guarantee of the same standards of care, as a company runs dispatch and then sub contracts the transportation.
Lydia worked 30 hours for Kinder Sports between the 6th and 22nd of October. Kinder Sports have repeatedly tried to weasel out of paying Lydia fairly and promptly for the work she undertook for them.
Lydia and South London Solidarity Federation are now calling for a communications blockade on Twitter against Kinder Sports for unpaid wages. Kinder Sports, run by Matt Longhurst, provide after-school sports activities and some school hours provision at locations around Dartford in Kent.
As a Bristol SF member recently arrived at a UK airport he was not expecting to be approached by plain clothed police and invited to have a little chat. This blatant attempt to harass and intimidate one of our members swiftly ended as the SF member, after realising they were not going to detain him, attempted to record the conversation and chased them off.
Bristol SF have a clear message for the police. We are about working-class solidarity, internationalism and freedom. Your creed is suspicion and paranoia. Your role is to protect privilege and crush dissent. We will never talk to you.
Earlier this month, we helped an international student get back her holding deposit from a lettings agency. Here is the tenant's story.
The agency were nice in the beginning, like every other agency. However they kept asking if I still wanted the flat. It made me feel quite pressured, so I paid the holding deposit of £650. I thought this was excessive, but the agency assured me that I would not lose the money as long as I proceeded with the tenancy application. Despite the deposit, the agency could still change whatever they wanted . They tried to postpone the advertised moving in date without my agreement, and referred to it being “subject to contract”. So if I said no, I would lose the deposit. How is it fair that they could hold my money against me and change the terms of tenancy in their favour!
SF have once again appeared on the streets of Liverpool after an absence of more than two years. Recently joined members have moved into the city, and have been in contact with the Manchester local.
So, at the end of last week, SF members from both cities organised a literature stall and leafletted members of the public. We met with a generally positive reception from passers by, with one giving us a donation, a few taking additional literature for their mates and 'Stuff Your Boss' getting its usual amused response.
A lettings agency is facing a growing campaign by an aggrieved tenant supported by Brighton Solfed after refusing to pay back a holding deposit. This Saturday saw Solfed redouble our efforts in a campaign aiming to get a tenant what she's owed – and show that ordinary people don't have to accept being ripped off by lettings agencies.
