'Sick Of Your Boss?' week of action 8-13 July

Sick of Your Boss (Click to enlarge)

The profit-hungry, super-exploitative companies who employ the nation's 'precariat' will be targeted by young workers and campaigners in a national week of action from 8 to 13 July.

The events, planned all over the country, are part of an initiative demanding an end to the insecurity, low pay and bullying that are a daily experience for millions of workers in Britain - especially the young.

Street meetings, stalls, rallies and protests are planned, and the campaign aims to help young people get organised inside their workplaces as well, through joining and being involved in trade unions.

Actions will focus on targeting Primark stores in particular - a company whose bloody desire for cheap labour, and contempt for the lives of workers, was made shockingly clear by the horrendous collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh.

Sick of your boss leaflet (Click to enlarge)

In Britain, improvements won by the labour movement in the past mean workers have some protection from these hellish conditions.

But the continual assault on workers' rights, made by the government at the behest of companies like Primark, shows that we need to fight back.

Some examples of plans for the Sick Of Your Boss? week of action:

In Tower Hamlets, east London, where there is a large Bangladeshi community, Sick Of Your Boss and the Socialist Party are holding a meeting on 11 July about the Bangladesh garment factory disaster
A call centre worker has pledged to talk to three workmates during the week of action about joining the union
In Leeds, Youth Fight for Jobs activists will be spending the week of action building for a rally the following Saturday (20 July)

Trade unions in Coventry using Sick Of Your Boss? leaflets

Even in traditionally well-unionised workplaces, the conditions many young workers face can be tough and degrading. Zero-hour contacts mean that many workers at Coventry council bin depot go to work some days not knowing if there will be any work for them that day!

In BT and Royal Mail, bullying and sackings have increased to unprecedented levels in the last few years.

After a motion from Coventry Communication Workers Union (CWU), strong supporter of Youth Fight for Jobs, the union nationally has decided to investigate the levels of suicide among BT workers - we think heavily due to the degrading performance management programme the company enforces.

Because of this a number of trade union branches locally in Coventry have begun using Sick Of Your Boss? leaflets in their recruitment material and in local offices to help persuade young workers who may never have encountered trade unions and what they're for, that they don't have to take the exploitation, bullying and harassment - that workers can stand up and fight back.

Lenny Shail, Coventry

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