Extra tea for mayday
dmish | 01.05.2006 14:48 | Mayday 2006 | Workers' Movements | Cambridge
On Mayday, a group of Cambridge activists, armed only with a couple of thermoses and some home made biscuits, visited ASDA to give extra tea breaks to the workers forced to work on Mayday.
It was surprisingly hard to find workers who wanted tea or coffee - it mainly seemed to be older workers who were interested. (One shelf stacker, on being asked if he wanted biscuits tried to redirect us to the biscuits aisle - bless!) We tried offering tea or coffee to one of the managers, but they were not interested either.
After a short while, we retired to a nearby park to make good use of the remaining tea, coffee and biscuits.
Leaflet Text:
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Mayday – the worker's holiday?
Mayday is International workers day, born out of the struggle for an 8 hour day in 1886. Over 100 years later our lives are still taken up by the world of work. Even more so now, as the work imposed by Capitalism has become more casualised (temporary contracts, flex time, part time, no time!) forcing us to adapt to the point where it's hard to tell when, where or even if we are working. This leaves us in a situation where our lives are always on hold, on call and at the mercy of the market. May 1st this year falls on a bank holiday, yet for many it will be just another day at work.
On May 1st we act in solidarity with the many Mayday actions against precarity and insecurity which are taking place around the world; and with the French workers refusal of a future where the only certainty is insecurity. We take action on May 1st because May Day is a celebration of the struggles won by workers for a better world. One less day of working and one day more for us.
How about an extra tea break?
We've decided today to give supermarket workers an extra tea break as some small compensation for having to work on Mayday. We won't take too long so please bear with us.
For more information, read
http://cambridge.indymedia.org.uk/
http://www.cambridgeaction.net/
http://www.precarity.info/
After a short while, we retired to a nearby park to make good use of the remaining tea, coffee and biscuits.
Leaflet Text:
---------------
Mayday – the worker's holiday?
Mayday is International workers day, born out of the struggle for an 8 hour day in 1886. Over 100 years later our lives are still taken up by the world of work. Even more so now, as the work imposed by Capitalism has become more casualised (temporary contracts, flex time, part time, no time!) forcing us to adapt to the point where it's hard to tell when, where or even if we are working. This leaves us in a situation where our lives are always on hold, on call and at the mercy of the market. May 1st this year falls on a bank holiday, yet for many it will be just another day at work.
On May 1st we act in solidarity with the many Mayday actions against precarity and insecurity which are taking place around the world; and with the French workers refusal of a future where the only certainty is insecurity. We take action on May 1st because May Day is a celebration of the struggles won by workers for a better world. One less day of working and one day more for us.
How about an extra tea break?
We've decided today to give supermarket workers an extra tea break as some small compensation for having to work on Mayday. We won't take too long so please bear with us.
For more information, read
http://cambridge.indymedia.org.uk/
http://www.cambridgeaction.net/
http://www.precarity.info/
dmish
Homepage:
http://www.cambridgeaction.net/