5 years in the past on thirtieth September 2017 United Voices of the World, a grassroots commerce union for low paid, migrant and precarious employees, protested in South Kensington in opposition to luxurious automotive sellers H R Owen who had suspended their two cleaners with out pay for asking to be paid a residing wage.
The UVW has many members amongst London’s low paid minority ethnic communities, significantly Spanish audio system, and has led profitable campaigns to get them higher remedy at work and to be paid the London Residing Wage.
On this and different protests they’ve been supported by different teams, significantly Class Conflict and the Revolutionary Communist Group and there have been a quantity from these and different unions on the protest.
The Ferrari showrooms have solely two cleaners, Angelica Valencia and Freddy Lopez, and so they have been then employed on the minimal wage by cleansing firm Templewood, who the UVW additionally say have made illegal deductions from their wages and are in breach of the minimal wage laws.
Nearly 100 supporters met outdoors South Kensington Station within the late afternoon after which marched to the Ferrari showroom. On their manner they paused briefly to protest at H R Owen’s Lamborghini showrooms after which the doorway to their places of work.
They stopped outdoors the showrooms on the Outdated Brompton Street for an extended and noisy protest, with speeches, chanting, drumming and ending with dancing on the roadway.
Loud peaceable protests comparable to this entice an excessive amount of native consideration to the disputes and disgrace employers into assembly the calls for of low paid and badly handled employees. They’re efficient in persuading the house owners of companies to lean on outsourcing firms to deal with their employees higher.
Though outsourcing firms are solely involved with exploiting their employees for higher earnings, companies comparable to H R Owen are very a lot conscious of the detrimental publicity from the exploitation on their premises being made public.
The success of protests like this, significantly in opposition to a few of the main firms within the Metropolis of London, by the UVW and different energetic grass roots unions is probably one of many causes that led the federal government to enact the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 which gave the police powers to behave in opposition to noisy protests. It stays to be seen how the police, and the Met particularly, will make use of those.
The amount of cash concerned in paying respectable wages to the 2 cleaners is clearly miniscule in contrast the the value of the automobiles being bought within the showrooms. The web page tells me that in 2022 the Ferrari vary is priced between £166,296 – £263,098.
Class Conflict had introduced some ‘DO NOT ENTER CRIME SCENE’ tape and a few of the supporters of the cleaners had come carrying mops which they waved on the folks contained in the showroom.
Because the poster states, each of the cleaners voted for strike motion within the office poll, giving this a 100% vote. Most if not all of the strikes by the UVW have had very excessive ranges of assist amongst employees. The poster additionally factors out that H R Owen are making £400 million a 12 months however the strikers have been solely paid £7.50 an hour. Paying them a residing wage would have a completely insignificant influence on firm earnings however make an enormous distinction to the cleaners.
Police talked to the protesters and tried to maintain site visitors flowing alongside the highway, although there was little or no of it and little disruption was brought about. However Class Conflict did maintain up a couple of automobiles for a minute or two with their banner.
The peaceable protest ended with music and dancing – and a few extra speeches. On their web page, the UVW state:
“In a David vs Goliath battle, UVW members Freddy and Angelica, mates from Ecuador, took on luxurious automotive dealership HR Owen and beat the chances; overcoming intimidation and suspensions, they received the London Residing Wage. Their victory was a testomony to the ability of UVW’s worker-led direct actions.”
https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/en/campaigns/hr-owen-ferrari-dealership/
You possibly can see many extra footage of the profitable protest at Cleaners at luxurious automotive sellers HR Owen.
Tags: Angelica, Class Conflict, Claudia, cleaners, Ferrari, Freddy, Ian Bone, Jane Nicholl, London, Luxurious Vehicles, march, outsourcing, peter Marshall, police, poverty wages, protest, RCG, Revolutionary Communist Group, showroom, South Kensington, United Voices of the World, UVW
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