5.30pm sharp till 7pm Mon 27th February
Meet at Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place EH7 5HA to plan anti workfare demo in Edinburgh on Sat 3rd March.
All interested very welcome.
Called by Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty (ECAP)
Momentum is growing UK-wide against the Government’s compulsory “work-for-your-benefits” schemes such as the Work Programme.
Within the last few days Sainsbury’s, Waterstones, TK Maxx, 99p Stores and Maplin have all made statements that they will pull out of workfare.
Miss Selfridge also said their company does not participate in workfare.
Superdrug have said they will not be taking on any new candidates, and Matalan have suspended their use of the scheme.
Of the major charities involved Marie Curie have pulled out, and Oxfam are expected to make a formal statement any time soon.
Other companies and charities are considering their positions, so now’s the time to step up the pressure to force more employers to drop workfare.
See: https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/
Meanwhile however almost every week Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty hears complaints from local claimants of bullying and threats from workfare providers such as A4e.
Yesterday alone we received two such reports:
– a claimant on the Work Programme told us that last week his accompanying friend was grabbed and threatened with arrest by the police at A4e in Edinburgh
– a woman on disability benefits told us how she was persuaded by the Jobcentre to attend A4e “voluntarily”; but then A4e staff threatened to stop her benefits if she did not attend all appointments.
Workfare is also an attack on all workers in jobs, undermining everyone’s wages and conditions.
On Saturday 3rd March we will be joining people throughout the UK by taking action in Edinburgh against slave labour.
Please come along on Monday to help plan this activity.
We already know some of the employers using workfare here, but if you know of companies or charities in Edinburgh participating in the workfare schemes please do let us know.
Let’s make workfare unworkable!
For more info on workfare see the article on the Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty site at: www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
See also our Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty facebook:
www.facebook.com/pages/Edinburgh-Coalition-Against-Poverty/181015481950367?sk=wall
Contact us at ecap@lists.riseup.net
And check out the excellent Boycott Workfare http://www.boycottworkfare.org/
Workfare is More like Slavefare with Cheap Labour used for Capitalist
Profits
Constitutional Protection for Welfare Benefits Now and Forever together
with Redistribution of Wealth from Rich to Poor