Come to a lively protest to stand in solidarity with the cleaners at John Lewis.
John Lewis, 300 Oxford Street, London, W1A 1EX
(Click here for Facebook Event Page)
The cleaners are demonstrating because they are….
1) All on the minimum poverty wage of £6.08 p/hour and are demanding the London Living Wage of £8.30 p/hour.
2) Often not paid for the hours they work.
3) Not provided appropriate equipment or protection.
4) Discriminated against by their managers. For example, some Hindu cleaners are called ‘bloody Indians’, whilst some larger employees are called ‘pig heads’
5) At threat of seeing 50% redundancies. The remaining 50% of the cleaners would be expected to cover the work of those made redundant with the same hours and with no extra pay!
6) Prejudicially excluded from the so-called John Lewis partnership.
The redundancies are not because John Lewis cannot afford to pay:
1) Last year they took in over £8 billion in revenue; £393 million in operating profits; and created 4,400 new jobs.
2) This year they predict to create 1,900 new jobs.
3) The John Lewis chairman earns £825,000 a year, and the CEO more than £500,000 a year!!!!
Moreover, Andy Street, CEO of John Lewis claims, “there is no conflict between owners and workers. They are one and the same”. While the absurdity of this statement merits no attention, it is true that the 81,000 partners (employees) of John Lewis last year shared in an annual bonus pool of £165 million. Yet the cleaners did not get a single penny, since they are outsourced to a contract cleaning company called Integrated Management Cleaning (ICM).
Therefore, the cleaners, the vast majority of whom are migrants that are sometimes at work from 6am-10pm, are clearly seen by John Lewis as second-class employees, and ultimately second-class citizens!!
Come and stand in solidarity to demand JUSTICE FOR THE CLEANERS!
