‘New life, new energy’

Unite delegate Asif Mohammed spoke today (September 10) at TUC conference in a support of a motion on fast food workers as he outlined the plight of TGI Fridays waiters and their historic ongoing strike action.

This August bank holiday, Asif said, TGI Fridays waiters at Milton Keynes, Covent Garden and Stratford “took to the picket line for a historic fifth time.”

“The campaign is a response to an act which come right out of the play book of the most bullying employers: wage theft.”

Asif explained how TGI Fridays management took 40 per cent of waiting staff card tips and used it to top up the wages of kitchen staff – without notice.

“Conference, this is a classic example of ‘divide and rule’ – stealing from one group of workers to avoid paying another a fair wage,” he said.

The policy has left waiters around ÂŁ250 a month worse off.

“That’s a lot of money for anyone,” Asif argued. “But especially if you’re under 20 and you’re only paid ÂŁ5.90 an hour to begin with.

“The fact that CEO Karen Forrester has awarded herself a 40% pay rise, while waiting staff have been left  40 per cent worse off has only strengthened our members resolve to fight on,” he went on to say.

Asif said that TGI Fridays and its treatment of workers shouldn’t be seen in isolation – poor pay and poor terms and conditions are considered the norm in fast food and hospitality, a norm that he said we must reject.

“It is about rejecting the very idea of a ‘McJob’, rejecting the idea that young workers are disposable,” he noted. “That we can be chewed up and thrown away at the convenience of some of the biggest businesses in the country.”

“Our members also take strength from the knowledge that they are not fighting alone,” he added. “The fight at TGI Fridays is one part of a global fight by young workers across the fast food industry.”

Asif highlighted recent victories in the United States such as the Fightfor$15 campaign waged by young McDonalds workers – such victories, Asif said, have “breathed new life into the trade union movement in the United States.”

He added that a fast food organising campaign can be “a spark to alight for the wider service industry, bringing new, young members, new life and new energy into our movement,” as he urged congress to support the motion.

The motion was carried.