{"id":15256,"date":"2018-05-18T15:25:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T14:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15256"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:44","slug":"tgi-fridays-historic-first-ever-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15256","title":{"rendered":"‘We won’t back down’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

TGI Fridays workers at two restaurants in Milton Keynes and Covent Garden took part in their first ever strike today (May 18) over a new tipping policy that sees waiters lose \u00c2\u0141250 a month.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dozens of workers walked out and joined picket lines Friday afternoon in what will be the first of a series of planned strikes against the US-owned restaurant chain. TGI Fridays workers at Trafford Centre, Greater Manchester and Haymarket, Piccadilly in London have also voted 100 per cent in favour of strike action and are set to walk out for 24 hours next Friday (May 25).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After lunchtime protests at the two TGI Fridays restaurants hit by the strike today (pictured below), the waiters joined McDonald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who are leading the first ever UK fast food strikes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at a low pay rally at Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offices in central London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"tgi<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Provoked<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

TGI Fridays workers say they have been provoked into taking unprecedented strike action after bosses railroaded through a new tipping policy that swiped 40 per cent of waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 card tips and redistributed them to kitchen staff.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bosses have tried to paint the striking workers as selfishly refusing to share tips with kitchen staff but the waiters have disputed this \u00e2\u20ac\u201c after all, they already share tips with bar staff and assistant servers and want tips to be distributed fairly with their consultation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TGI Fridays management have refused to give kitchen staff a proper pay rise and are instead subsidising their wages with waiters’ tips to staunch high kitchen staff turnover in a bid to maximise profits.<\/p>\n

\"tgi<\/p>\n

‘Huge stress’<\/strong><\/em>
\nStriking workers told Unite of the massive impact the new tips policy has had on them. One waitress, who has calculated that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s losing about \u00c2\u0141200 a month after the policy was introduced, pointed out that servers like her \u00e2\u20ac\u015blive off the tips we thankfully earn, as we are all on minimum wage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPersonally this has affected me massively,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis year my boyfriend, who also works at TGI Fridays, and I were going on our first holiday together and had planned to travel through Europe.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now, she and her partner have had to forgo the holiday because, she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwe can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to take that much time off from work anymore.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also had to consider giving up my flat, as money has become very tight after these changes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another waitress, who is a mother of two young children, told Unite that her job isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t merely a part-time gig to earn extra cash \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it pays her bills and feeds and clothes her kids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe new tipping policy has brought me huge stress over the last five months \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m constantly worrying about money,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI have had to work more hours to try and compensate for the money I am losing. I now have less family time which is emotionally affecting me and my children.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI lose on average \u00c2\u014150 to \u00c2\u014165 a week \u00e2\u20ac\u201c money that I now have to find elsewhere but how are you supposed to do that? We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we have to fight this.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Ready to talk’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull\u00c2\u00a0(pictured below) said that the unanimous votes for strike action show the strength of feeling among the workforce about the injustice they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now facing.<\/p>\n

\"tgi<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is warning TGI Fridays of a summer of disruption if management don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do the decent thing and sit down with us to find a sensible solution to this dispute,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members have sent a very clear message that they will not roll over and be bullied into having their tips taken, without any consultation and with just two days\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 notice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a move that will leave waiting staff up to \u00c2\u0141250 a month worse off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about minimum wage servers not wanting to share with their kitchen colleagues,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about a company whose shareholders have gotten so greedy that they no longer want to pay their hardworking staff anything above the bare minimum.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turnbull added that while the workers \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t back down\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 they \u00e2\u20ac\u015bare ready to talk\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTGI Fridays is urged to take us up on this offer and work together with Acas to start rebuilding trust,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also called on TGI Fridays customers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 not to cross the picket line today.<\/p>\n

\"tgi<\/p>\n

Want to show your support for striking workers? Sign our letter to the CEO, Karen Forrester urging her to work with Unite<\/a> and Acas to find a better way forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TGI Fridays workers at two restaurants in Milton Keynes and Covent Garden took part in their first ever strike today (May 18) over a new tipping policy that sees waiters lose \u00c2\u0141250 a month.   Dozens of workers walked out and joined picket lines Friday afternoon in what will be the first of a series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[303,888,853],"wps_subtitle":"TGI Fridays workers in historic first strike for tipping justice","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15256"}],"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=15256"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26179,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15256\/revisions\/26179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}