{"id":14962,"date":"2018-04-11T16:19:37","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T15:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14962"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:04","slug":"tgi-fridays-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14962","title":{"rendered":"‘The courage to fight back’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first strikes in a UK casual dining chain in decades have moved a step closer today (April 11), after Unite notified TGI Fridays that it will be balloting workers in two branches for strike action, in what will be the first in a series of strike ballots over the coming months.<\/p>\n

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Waiting staff at the American dining chain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Milton Keynes and Covent Garden restaurants are being balloted from Wednesday, April 18 over breaches of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tip and tronc policy and minimum wage abuses. The ballots close on Tuesday, May 1.<\/p>\n

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TGI Fridays which has 83 branches across the UK is now facing a wave of rolling strike ballots as the union prepares to ballot workers in two restaurants a week from Friday (April 13).<\/p>\n

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A protest will be held outside the chain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Covent Garden branch this Friday (April 13) from 6.30pm to mark the launch of the first ever strike ballots to hit TGI Fridays since opening its first UK restaurant in Birmingham in 1986.<\/p>\n

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TGI Fridays, which is majority owned by the private equity firm Electra, has come under fire in recent weeks over its use of unpaid trial shifts <\/a>and for taking 40 per cent of waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 card tips<\/a> and redistributing them to kitchen staff in lieu of a pay rise. It also topped a list of firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s named and shamed by the government for failing to pay workers the legal minimum wage.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are bravely fighting back against a system that forces workers to live on low pay and without income security,” said Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey have decided to ballot for strike action in a wave of rolling strike ballots over the coming months because their employer has refused to address their concerns on tips and other issues. Unite is proud to support them.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe ballot of TGI Fridays workers comes just days after workers at fast food giant McDonalds decided to ballot for further industrial action at six stores, building on their historic strike last September<\/a>,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bStanding up for your rights and challenging bad practice is hard when the threat of having your shifts cut or losing your job looms over you. It takes courage to fight back, which is why these TGI Fridays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 workers and the McStrikers deserve our respect.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is urging TGI Fridays workers from across the UK to join the union. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not too late to have your say and demand better from your employer.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The first strikes in a UK casual dining chain in decades have moved a step closer today (April 11), after Unite notified TGI Fridays that it will be balloting workers in two branches for strike action, in what will be the first in a series of strike ballots over the coming months.   Waiting staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[95,888,907,853],"wps_subtitle":"TGI Fridays hit with first ever strike ballots ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26279,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14962\/revisions\/26279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}