Picketing the Tate Modern
At the Tate Modern art gallery on London's Thames south bank, visitors from abroad viewed not modern art but a PCS union picket line instead. They were being introduced to a very angry group of mainly young workers who are normally seen by the visitors as gallery assistants (GA), there to guide the tourists from gallery to gallery.
Clifford, a 29 year old GA told me that he can hardly get by on his wages. "Half of my money goes on rent and council tax" he said, "it is hardly enough to get by with in central London, I have worked here for five years and we have had enough. When there are special exhibitions on we have to do even more work but we aren't paid any more.
"The latest thing is the plan by management to replace us with 'voluntary staff'. These are supposed to be people who know more about art than us but they work for nothing! It all comes down to the government treating civil servants like me with contempt".
Bill Mullins
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In The Socialist 3 May 2007:
2007 election analysis: Time for a new workers' party
Scottish Elections: Labour rocked as SNP wins
Socialist Party election campaign
NHS cuts... privatisation... widening wealth gap
Campaign for a New Workers' Party conference
Socialist Party NHS campaign
NHS: A matter of life and death in Swansea
Socialist Party workplace news
PCS: Fighting for jobs, pay and services
Socialist Party editorial
Widening wealth gap needs working-class response
Socialist Party election campaign
Packed election rally for Scotland's Solidarity
Irish election - Socialist Party takes on the establishment
New Labour panics and resorts to lies
Yorkshire ISR and Socialist Students day of action
Global Warming
Alternative energy: Winds of change?
Education
Socialist Students
Seattle students walkout against the Iraq war
Pressure mounts for troops withdrawal
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Russia April 1917: Lenin returns from exile
Comment
Women must have the right to choose!
Socialist Party news and analysis
What 'public-private partnerships really mean
Oppose legal aid contracts tooth and nail
Socialist Party workplace news
Remember the dead but fight for the living
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