[ska_mna]

Just been sent a link to this website. Campaign against private companies who benefit from people who are made to work unpaid with the threat of loss of benefits.

List of companies benefiting:
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/

Quote

Boycott Workfare is a UK-wide campaign to end forced unpaid work for benefits. Workfare benefits the rich by providing free labour, whilst threatening the poor by taking away welfare rights if people refuse to work without a living wage. We expose and take action against companies and organisations profiting from workfare; encourage organisations to pledge to boycott it; and actively inform people of their rights.

What a mess we are in.

Also worth linking this to an opinion piece in the Guardian today >, pointing out that we, as a nation, are increasingly disgusted by poor people themselves rather than poverty. I think it's a useful distinction to make, and you don't have to be a statist labourite luvvie tw4t to realise that the problems of poverty are a product of the economic climate and system we've created rather than the relative small number of genuinely work-shy leeches.

Move manufacturing to China, replace jobs with benefits system, inflate credit bubble, spend beyond our means, allow elite to cream huge wages off the top of illicit parasitic profits pulled in from future demand creating massive inequality, make living costs so expensive that a basic wage isn't enough to live on (no longer pays to work) etc. etc.

What a massive c0ck-up we've made of things, eh.

This post has been edited by ska_mna: 16 February 2012 - 12:22 PM

[long time lurking]

Worryingly, public sector jobs at Medway Council are also being filled with workfare placements


If they are to be made to work the council should be the first on the list surely

[Timak]

http://jobcentreplus...FT-id-BSD-27442

Fancy a night shift at Tesco.

Used to pay £10 an hour.

Now pays JSA+expenses.

Tesco have had £10m worth of free labour (7000 workfare placements) and have taken on 4% of the people they've had in.

Still Tesco got a bit richer so all is well.

[council dweller]

Yes, this needs to be stamped on now.

Boycott!!

[bendybogle]

I guess it’s a bit of a DOUBLE EDGED SWORED (crapspeak alert).

In one way it’s unfair on those who has legitimately lost their jobs and can’t find anything, yet I guess if stores use free labour to keep their costs down, and therefore the product costs too, it’s like them in work getting a taxback discount should they shop in one of the stores that takes advantage of the scheme.

Personally I’m not particularly in agreement with it. Unfortunately for it to be fair would mean adding layers of bureaucracy that’d cost more than it would generate.

[clockslinger]

ska_mna, on 16 February 2012 - 12:20 PM, said:

Just been sent a link to this website. Campaign against private companies who benefit from people who are made to work unpaid with the threat of loss of benefits.

List of companies benefiting:
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/



What a mess we are in.

Also worth linking this to an opinion piece in the Guardian today >, pointing out that we, as a nation, are increasingly disgusted by poor people themselves rather than poverty. I think it's a useful distinction to make, and you don't have to be a statist labourite luvvie tw4t to realise that the problems of poverty are a product of the economic climate and system we've created rather than the relative small number of genuinely work-shy leeches.

Move manufacturing to China, replace jobs with benefits system, inflate credit bubble, spend beyond our means, allow elite to cream huge wages off the top of illicit parasitic profits pulled in from future demand creating massive inequality, make living costs so expensive that a basic wage isn't enough to live on (no longer pays to work) etc. etc.

What a massive c0ck-up we've made of things, eh.

Yes, I'd agree with the comment about disgust at poor people, something regularly manifested even on this site. Just look at the acceptability of a word like "chav", an indistinct form of insult, generally applied to the disenfranchised, particularly an unemployed benefit recipient. Try substituting black or woman in a sentence uttered by someone using the word to see just how acceptable the term has become. (think there is a book on this called Chavs - the demonisation of the working class, so this isn't an original thoght of mine BTW)
Completely disagree that this situation is accidental ( as implied by **** up) however; quite the opposite. It is a continuation of the same exercise that began with breaking trade unions as a real political counterweight. This is a carefully engineered project designed to serve the interests of the supermarket/banking /political/ media kleptocracy. No conspiricy theory, simply the inevitable outcome of allowing the political system to be shaped and guided by the most powerful and wealthiest political lobbies. It is utterly vital for them, given what the rest of us are about to experience, that there is NO organised, effective opposition outside their control, hence the effort to divide and rule with wheezes like this. Doubtless a lot of wind and ink will be let loose by the hordes defending the use of my tax to underwrite the bottom line of multinationals because it makes "the scroungers" pay for their benefits. On that basis I want the Noble Chuckle Brothers of Windsor to clean my house once a week instead of twa**ing about in helicopters meant for proper people to fight in.

This post has been edited by clockslinger: 16 February 2012 - 01:15 PM

[Secure Tenant]

clockslinger, on 16 February 2012 - 12:50 PM, said:

Yes, I'd agree with the comment about disgust at poor people, something regularly manifested even on this site. Just look at the acceptability of a word like "chav", an indistinct form of insult, generally applied to the disenfranchised, particularly an unemployed benefit recipient. Try substituting black or woman in a sentence uttered by someone using the word to see just how acceptable the term has become. (think there is a book on this called Chavs - the demonisation of the working class, so this isn't an original thoght of mine BTW)
Completely disagree that this situation is accidental ( as implied by **** up) however; quite the opposite. It is a continuation of the same exercise that began with breaking trade unions as a real political counterweight. This is a carefully engineered project designed to serve the interests of the supermarket/banking /political/ media kleptocracy. No conspiricy theory, simply the inevitable outcome of allowing the political system to be shaped and guided by the most powerful and wealthiest political lobbies. It is utterly vital for them, given what the rest of us are about to experience, that there is NO organised, effective opposition outside their control, hence the effort to divide and rule with wheezes like this. Doubtless a lot of wind and ink will be let loose by the hordes defending the use of my tax to underwrite the bottom line of multinationals because it makes "the scroungers" pay for their benefits. On that basis I want the Noble Chuckle Brothers of Windsor to clean my house once a week instead of twa**ing about in helicopters meant for proper people to fight in.

+1


Also HMV are on that list. Free workers and they are still screwed!

This post has been edited by "Steed": 16 February 2012 - 01:18 PM

[RichB]

It's disgusting.

Surely there must an FIO out there somewhere that itemises how much each company has benefitted from this?

[ska_mna]

clockslinger, on 16 February 2012 - 12:50 PM, said:

Completely disagree that this situation is accidental ( as implied by **** up) however; quite the opposite. It is a continuation of the same exercise that began with breaking trade unions as a real political counterweight. This is a carefully engineered project designed to serve the interests of the supermarket/banking /political/ media kleptocracy. No conspiricy theory, simply the inevitable outcome of allowing the political system to be shaped and guided by the most powerful and wealthiest political lobbies. It is utterly vital for them, given what the rest of us are about to experience, that there is NO organised, effective opposition outside their control, hence the effort to divide and rule with wheezes like this.

Oh absolutely, completely agree. Our political system and institutions are incapable of making change. In fact everything is largely a product of them. It's also why I was so dismayed at the overwhelming rejection of AV+ last year. However small, it could have helped take a first chink out of the old guard's armour.

But like you say, there is no real opposition to the status quo. There are still some unions, but the labour party is no longer a party for the worker but a party for the public sector/state. There's a big difference.

Revolution it is then.

[Gone baby gone]

Thanks to the OP - a few of my usual shops on here the as of tomorrow won't be getting my custom.

[SarahBell]

What, on 16 February 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

Thanks to the OP - a few of my usual shops on here the as of tomorrow won't be getting my custom.

Write and let them know why.

Write to the local paper too.

[Gone baby gone]

SarahBell, on 16 February 2012 - 06:56 PM, said:

Write and let them know why.

Write to the local paper too.

Surely this isn't the same Sarah Bell who was in favour of workfare only a few short months ago?

Thanks, I'll be dropping a paper mail to the CEO of each company I am boycotting to let them know why I'm taking my custom elsewhere.

[Secure Tenant]

What, on 16 February 2012 - 07:03 PM, said:

Surely this isn't the same Sarah Bell who was in favour of workfare only a few short months ago?

I think sarah was more in favour of the unemployed doing some hedge tidying and clearing up litter IIRC

[Saberu]

Quote

JSA+EXPENSES
Permanent

Wow the situation is a lot worse than I thought. I assumed workfare was just for a month in which case at least it would be a hassle for companies to constantly recruit people but this is a permanent position for JSA.

This means JSA is OFFICIALLY the new minimum wage, around 1.80 an hour is that?

That's disgusting even by Chinese standards, because they don't have the inflated living costs we do.

[SarahBell]

What, on 16 February 2012 - 07:03 PM, said:

Surely this isn't the same Sarah Bell who was in favour of workfare only a few short months ago?

Thanks, I'll be dropping a paper mail to the CEO of each company I am boycotting to let them know why I'm taking my custom elsewhere.

The jobs that are being done should be paid jobs that companies should be paying for.

Inventing nice jobs planting trees and the likes would be a much nicer thing to do for nowt.nalthough you could argue the skills learnt are not transferable to the modern jobs on offer.
There are lots of things that could be dne for workfare that would make peoples lives much better: being a tesco slave isn't one of them.