The unionisation and striking of British McDonalds

theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/18/mcdonalds-employees-vote-to-strike-over-pay-and-zero-hours-concerns

So it turns out that workers at british McDonald's are organising and are striking to end zero hours contracts (which are basically contracts with no set ours, you earn what you work and you can be called upon at any time), for better pay and for better working conditions. This could be the start of mass organisation of retail: something the booj class could not use the "well we will just outsource" argument for, and will start to bring down the "microprofit" subsidies shops they use to destroy local businesses and thus gain monopolies. It could be the start of this whole sector of the proletariat; created by the neoliberal consensus, garnering class consciousness.

The union involved:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakers,_Food_and_Allied_Workers'_Union

inb4 butthurt yankee tankies

Now this is a good fucking news. Thx user. If it works it's going to make history

why tf would tankies be butthurt??

Hypersensitivity?

Why would I? Union struggles is one of the reasons I'm a communist.

Say it with me
electronic kiosks

Those kiosks going to flip the burgers?

They're gonna do that no matter what. Might as well unionise

third worldism?

We'll find a way, slave.

Good luck with your falling rate of profit, m9

Good, now if only my fuckin' IT industry could do something it would be nice.

That sounds exactly like being a worker in burgerland.

Neoliberalism came here first (by like a year). Until a few years ago the UK were some of the most classcucked people in teh west, now some consider us some of the most forward thinking.

you know they're microwaved, right? and assembly robots will make your food. like they do in factorites that make frozen dinners.

might as well accelerate the conditions that make entry level labor too expensive to be worth it ftfy

Yes, and instead of asking for higher wages, we should demand to have less work hours for the same salary (or higher šŸ˜ˆ).

THIS

American tankies get mad at pretty much anything Euros do short of armed revolution. They are mad jelly.


Right on time. Always butthurt within 20 replies in a Euro thread.

Finally the Anglo does something good. Now we need the burger flippers in burgerland to folow there steps.


Automation causes the falling rate of profit

I hope they enjoy their replacement

It's good news, even if it makes the tiniest progress since it'll empower other workers to unionise too.

I've been sending shit like this to my un-unionised friend to get her to join up, and I've recently joined the IWW.

At the end of the day organising workers will benefit the movement regardless of how futile the efforts are against capital in the meantime before any "revolution" that we discuss with a utopian mindset.

And if the union action for decent working conditions causes faster automation or whatever (which in a capitalist system it will) then you come to the old Trotskyist idea that fighting for causes that prove the inability of Capitalism to cater for the proletariat will in turn lead to a growing anti-capitalist sentiment and greater agitation against capital itself, which is always a good thing.

State owned food services and a life of luxury?

You just going to fire everyone that tries to fight for their rights? How do you think that is going to end up pal?

See this is why ancapistan wouldn't work: they have the sense of late 1700s absolute monarchies.

Lol, you're LARPing as a McDonalds franchise owner

Good you only hasten you're lynching

No one owes you a living, and Monarchy is preferable to democracy.

Why do that when it would be cheaper to get a few shitty tablets?

yeah being ruled by some dipshit inbred with limbs falling off and chronic bleeding is an extremely better thing than having the masses dictate their fates

"We will just automate"

which is great. Food service shouldn't be inflicted upon anyone.

Zero-hour contracts in fucking McDonalds, quite literally hell on earth.

Good for them! Let them take their faith in their own hands in so far as they can.
It's also true that, barring government intervention, this will likely increase automation (>>2000928 >>2000765 are scum, but right). Which, if you are a good Marxist, is something that is on the whole good, as people are liberated of the drudgery of burger flipping. How we deal with the lack of jobs that will follow, is a different, wider issue, and one that requires among other things an organized working class andā€¦ strong unions. So there are only upsides, taking the wider view.

solution?
do you hear yourself?

Tnis is ridiculous. Kings and Queens are raised fo become virtuous rulers.

Their collective power will be part of the solution, not the solution itself.

READ DE LEON.

I agree tbh famrade. I mean gov intervention is quite likely considering McDonnell strikes me as a techno-communist kind of guy, but yeah.

Also I hope this builds class consciousness among the retail worker, that would be a major bon.

...

good to see we agree
now if that parasite boss would just fuck off am I right!

they have no collective power. they have access to the markets and voting and they still don't have power. the bougies won't let the system just collapse. they'll slowly phase out humans from the labor force, placate them with welfare, and then they will have full control over you. any dissenters will have their digital currency cards shut down and your access to self-driving cars will be restricted. the phasing of humans out of the labor force isn't a way of ushering a worker's movement, it's a planned way of putting chains around everyone's neck.

are you talking about democracy or monarchy?

THE HORRORRRRRRRRR

In my bureaucratic socialist utopia, no-one will stop you from frying burgers on a recreational basis.

Not an argument.

Your absolutely right. Isn't working a thankless job sweating over processed cow carcass, in a poorly made degrading uniform, in the back of a horrendously kept establishment, while taking orders from uncaring strangers who treat you like part of an automated machine belt, while getting little monetary compensation for your time just the most humanizing experience!

Even in places with kiosks they have workers.

Fuck me this year just keeps getting better.


PLEASE PLACE THE ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA

I mean it is quite specific, but yeah.

Also, a moment of silence for the NUM.

who says their boss doesn't thank them?
they're just putting some frozen patties in a microwave. it's not rock-breaking in the desert sun
malnourished vegan spotted
how is a uniform degrading?
you're just inventing this. some restaurants are spotlessly clean, even fast food ones. they get health inspected and publicly graded regularly where i'm from
again, you're just imposing ill will on everyone who wants a burger. i've worked retail, most people are nice
you are
some places you make $12+/hr for microwaving burgers. again, you're imposing and projecting blanket utopianism where it doesn't always apply. plus, you always have the option of not working some place that doesnt compensate you enough.

I'm guessing you've never had a job by the way you envision working retail, user.

They're in the process of being phased out. All entry-level labor is. From drivers to check-out people to product stocking. It's all going mechanical, even if it isn't right now.

So much for the humanist right.

Anyway to do this against google?

When 90% of your business is automated, and 10% is just people shuffling things from one station to the other, you're basically an organic cog in a larger machine. Sort of like being a driver.

Or easier, you close the borders.

In what sense? What specifically is google doing in this regard?


Ladies and gents, the "individualist freedom" of capitalism!"


Borders ain't gonna stop automation bucko, nice try though.

you would still have unemployment

SCREECHING

that's true whether you're forced to work there in a marxist society or a capitalistic one. your job is rote and pre-determined. that's a pretty good metaphor for being a cog.

I don't share your obsession with being surrounded with people that look like me. Also there are structural reasons why our current organization of social production necessitates a degree ofā€¦ and sho on.

Please tell me of all the force labour under the EZLN. I'll wait.

I know you've never worked a job in your life but I thank my employees all the time. I know you wish this was 18th century eastern europe, but honestly most employers and employees i've worked with/for have been decent, nice people.

Today on things that aren't a thing: user being an actual boss!

please tell me what would happen if you lived in the EZLN and didn't work at all

I dunno, ask the elderly or children. Now tell me what happens under capitalism?

I know, when you're usually surrounded by blackpilled depressed losers who rail against a system they've only ever peripherally engaged with, it's hard to believe successful people could come here too. you'll have to trust not everyone on 8ch is as big of a loser as the average leftypol

I mean I have worked for several people, yeah some of them were nice.

But you really aren't making me believe you anymore pal.

what would happen if you're a 30 year old, able bodied man and didn't work in the EZLN?
depends. if you inherit money or own a successful business or save up money responsibly, etc., you don't have to do anything. I own my own business and plan on selling it before I turn 40 and retiring early.

No wonder the nazis only lasted for 12 years

>he thinks my contention is that he doesn't really thank his employees

Shot
t. Amerigan media

Honestly, I doubt much tbh.

Ah so if you have never done anything you can live easy if your daddy did: nice to see people advocating for aristocracy.

Wait did you just say business owners don't really work? Bloody hell.

Ah yes, for when you work minimum wage it is so easy to save up copious amounts of money to live the same way you did while you had a job.

Good luck with that mate, I am sure nonexistent business go for 100ks nowadays.

If you actually want capitalism to end, this is the quickest and most surefire way for it to happen. Read Marx.

as far as i can tell there's only one literal porky itt against it.

Been around (in my town atleast) for a year. Those kiosks are also CARD only and would of existed with or without a union.

If Maccie's want to be devlishly evil they'll sack their staff except managers and bring in a zero hr contract Agency

How is this even a question? Monarchy, of course. It's not even a comparison.
That's not to mention every other argument against it.

thanks so much for sharing, you've really improved this thread quite a lot.

Meh. Those things were first introduced here in Australia at McDonalds a few years back and they still employ the same number of people. Most employees are part of the union as well and as such McD's actually pays above the award rate (minimun wage) for fast food workers (hourly award for fast food workers starts at $20.08 or $22.09 10pm to midnight or $23.09 midnight to 6am or $25.10 on Saturday and $29.12 on Sunday) though i think the Sunday penalty rate no longer applies but McD's has said they will continue to pay it.

Oh, and despite paying people a somewhat living wage they still manage to produce food that's a thousand times better then anything US McDonalds workers have ever seen and provide table service.

It's almost like unionisation works.

Shit that looks good.

here is the legal minimum rates for fast food workers in Australia. Again McS's pays a little more then that because they have to negotiate rates with the union.

Somehow they still manage to make billions of dollars of profit as the largest fast food chain in the country.

it's not bad. you can order a custom burger using the kiosk and it spits out a table number thingy and they bring it out to you. i still get a double quarter pounder though usually because if i am going to McDonalds im going to get a double quarter pounder god damn it.

also includes pic related.
sage because I keep posting.

So a half pounder?

you would think.

I like the fact they managed to negotiate an allowance for having to work in one particular town in the middle of fucking nowhere. Didn't know of that one before.

How and when did this happen? I thought Australia went full classcuck a few years ago? If you have links to any good articles about this saved, it would make great ammo in the UK & US, as we've both got labor efforts against McDonalds ongoing right now.

We have actually been going down hill. The government recently removed weekend penalty rates for some shop workers ect.. We have strong unions in Australia, only reason this sort of thing exists. Unfortunately also the reason why we will not be having a socialist revolution any time soon.
Also interesting, most people in Australia pay less tax then in the US yet we still have universal health care and (you can walk into a hospital, get fixed up and walk out without anyone mentioning money), cheaper university (another thing we have lost in the last decades is free uni) and the government still managed to find $50bil to throw away of useless French made submarines (that's a lot for us, our regular military budget for this year is $34.6bil). Australia IS a neo-lib shithole but we are not the United States *shudders*.

...

this is gonna be horrible for jobs, learn basic economics

read "value price and profit"

Hot damn converted into UK money you would be paying National Insurance and/or paying off student debt with that kind of income.

If I make 10 pounds an hour, will you die?

It would be extremely unfortunateā€¦

Your profits are big, guy

FOR THE RULING CLASS

Why don't you take of your mask and call yourself what you are; a neo-feudalist.>>2001144