Worcestershire Trade Union Council demonstration against precarious employment, Saturday 5 Oct 2019, 11am-2pm

I preface this announcement by Hilary Cross, Branch Secretary of both Worcestershire Trades Union Council and Unite the Union Community Section Worcestershire Branch, with a little introduction to the subject of 'precarious employment'.

'Zero compassion contracts? Not thanks!'
A placard wording I previously created for Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group in 2004

'Precarious employment' and 'the precariat'

A more well-known term than 'precarious employment' and the related social class 'the precariat' is 'zero hours contracts'. 'Zero hours contracts' existed before 2010 General Election gave way to Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government.

It was pointed out at a Social Work Action Network (SWAN) event I attended that the 'welfare reform' measures enacted by the then Labour Government, that working conditions at, say, Pizza Hut, were such that the 'reserve army of labour' involved — even when present on the premises! — were only paid for the time that they were assigned to active services. Thus the Incapacity Benefit claimants being shunted onto Employment & Support Allowance as a lever toward getting them into the workforce as part of a 'reserve army of labour' were potentially being put at great risk, and the social workers, service users, academics and students who allied themselves to SWAN should thus oppose that policy promoted by investment banker turned 'welfare reform guru' David Freud.

(Essentially, for social workers to support policies that rendered people with limited capacity for paid work as part of the 'reserve army of labour' would be tantamount to neglect of social workers' duties to protect vulnerable people. See also https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2008/03/11/pathways-to-work-to-help-those-unfit-for-work/ but note that Community Care magazine has had a post-2011 history of deleting many benefit-claimant-friendly articles, apparently to favour their advertisers as social care has become more marketised.)

Wikipedia defines 'precarious work':

Precarious work is a term that critics of globalization use to describe non-standard employment that is poorly paid, insecure, unprotected, and cannot support a household.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precarious_work 

The original Latin root of 'precarious' was "to obtain by prayer." For more on this, see https://greattransition.org/publication/precariat-transformative-class

To conclude this introduction to the event, when right wingers talk about "getting people off benefits and into work," they conveniently overlook the fact that a great many of the people now on the income top-ups now incorporated into 'Universal Credit' are among the 'working poor'.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/10/the-misery-despair-and-pain-of-universal-credit

The announcement:

Dear Member
Quick reminder:
Worcester Trades Union Council day of action on precarious employment
Saturday 5th October, 11am - 2pm
Stalls and gazebo outside the Guildhall, High Street, Worcester, WR1 2EY.


Helpers needed for one-hour slots during the day.
Helpers also needed to set up at 10.30am and pack up at 2pm.
Please let me know if you can join us and when.



Please share the facebook post https://www.facebook.com/unitewm5109/


Best wishes
Hilary Cross
Branch Sec.

How to get there using public transport:

Link to Traveline Midlands, for journeys within the South, East and West Midlands