Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group — the Kwug Blog

Picketing workfare exploiters Grosvenor G Casino

From Brighton Benefits Campaign as the Department for Workfare and Penury gives new meaning to the term 'casino capitalism'

The following is closely linked to a discussion in the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group meeting on Thursday 27 February with Mark Savage of Kilburn Boycott Workfare. 'The other BBC' [Brighton Benefits Campaign] echo the sentiments of our discussion when they write that it is time to end the 'something for nothing culture' of the wealthy as the casino's slaves from the dole queue are forced to work very unsocial hours for very unhealthy purposes socially.

Dear friends & comrades

Tonight we will be picketing the Grosvenor G Casino here in Brighton.

Not content with profiteering from the punters, Grosvenor G are maximizing their profits through massive state handouts: in-work benefits for their low paid workers, and now unpaid labour in the form of workfare.

Unemployed people taken on under the guise of 'work experience' have been expected to work until the early hours or face sanctions.  Grosvenor G have even taken their tips!

Unemployment has become a growth industry.  The increase in the pension age and changes to disability and lone parent benefits mean many more people forced to sign on.   The work programme is notably worse at finding the unemployed real jobs than if they were left to do it themselves.  Unemployment appears to be dropping but the figures don't take into account the hundreds of thousands on workfare (who are counted as employed) and those forced into part-time work or precarious temporary and zero-hours employment. 

Workfare is an attack on all workers, in or out of work, and not only those on benefits.  Where companies use workfare, their contracted workforce see pay and conditions reduced, hours and overtime cut, health and safety put at risk, and their ability to organise diminished.  Paid jobs are lost.  Even volunteering has become coersive - a profit making opportunity for corporate charities.

This attack on workers both in and out of employment is part of a comprehensive assault on all our rights including housing, healthcare, education, justice and social security.   The erosion of public services and public rights began decades ago but was given a terrific boost by the bankers' crisis and justified by the millionaire-owned media.

We say it's time to end the 'something for nothing' culture of the rich and privileged.  Time to stop the handouts we are paying for from our taxes.

If you are in Brighton tonight, come and join us - we'll be meeting at the King and Queen pub at 9pm.

If you're not in Brighton - well, Grosvenor G are the biggest casino chain in the UK, with 55 casinos, so there's probably one near you.

Consider holding your own picket of these corporate parasites.

Opposing workfare works!

in solidarity

Pip

Brighton Benefits Campaign