Ritzy strike and Lambeth College: a May Day of struggle in south London

Photo: A Living Wage for Ritzy Staff

Stuart King from Lambeth Left Unity reports on two strikes that turned May Day in Lambeth into a real workers’ day of action.

Thursday 1 May saw two important strikes in Lambeth workplaces. An ongoing strike at the Ritzy Cinema saw a further strike over pay, while Lambeth College struck against a series of attacks on the contracts of college workers. The two groups of strikers marched together in solidarity and held a successful rally.

Ritzy Cinema

The workers at the Ritzy, the cinema in the centre of Brixton, are striking to demand the London Living Wage of £8.80 an hour. (Currently they are paid an average of £7.24 an hour, often on precarious contracts.) Thursday, May Day, was their fifth strike day, supported by their union BECTU.

On the day the striking Ritzy workers marched up to Clapham Picturehouse and organised a noisy protest outside their sister cinema. After a few minutes four members of staff from Clapham joined us on the picket line, to great applause and cheering from the striking Ritzy staff and their supporters.

The Ritzy is part of the massive Cineworld chain, which bought the smaller Picturehouse group for £47 million last year. Cineworld controls 80 cinemas across Britain and has expanded into eastern Europe in a recent £500 million takeover. It can afford to pay its workers a living wage.

Lambeth Left Unity members have been involved in the strike since day one, joining the lively picket lines made up of young and predominately women workers, producing our own leaflets in support of the strike and joining with others on the left in leafleting multiplex cinemas in Wandsworth, Clapham and Greenwich, encouraging workers there to join BECTU and join the fight for a living wage.

There will be more strike days at the Ritzy soon and donations to the strike fund are needed – see facebook.com/RitzyLivingWage for more information.

Lambeth College

At Lambeth College meanwhile an aggressive new management and principal have been trying to solve budget deficits caused by government cuts at the expense of the workers there. They are attempting to tear up teachers’ existing contracts, reducing holidays, increasing hours and attacking job security. The local UCU branch responded by taking strike action on May Day.

Already the local community has mobilised against an attempt by management to sell off most of the Brixton site for use as a free school, taking away a historically important base for black community education. This issue has brought together trade unionists and community activists in opposition, and given an extra dimension to the battle over conditions.

The strike had been due to continue indefinitely, but on the eve of the action college management won an injunction against it, with a judge declaring the strike ballot had been too ‘vague’. This disgraceful use of the anti-union laws is a warning to us all. However the lecturers are planning to re-ballot and continue their action. They need our support.

Further information: facebook.com/savebrixtoncollege