Young Socialists support the Fast Food Strike

Fast Food Strike solidarity protest in Leeds – 4/10/18

“I’ve just finished a job in catering, glad to see you out here trying to unionise as we need it.”

This was just one comment from a passer-by at the Leeds solidarity protest with the 4th October #FastFoodStrike involving workers for McDonald’s, Wetherspoons, TGI Friday’s, UberEats and Deliveroo workers.

Although no workers had been called out to join the strike in Leeds, Leeds Young Socialists and Leeds Socialist Students organised a solidarity action to help spread the message of the strike.

The strikes impact was shown even before it happened with Wetherspoons bringing forward a pay rise and the commitments made at Labour and Tory party conferences to bring in legislation to make tip theft illegal.

We had a lot of support from local trade unionists and Labour Party members, even local Blairite MP Hilary Benn turned up for a short period. Over 20 people took part altogether, many coming to help spread the word about the strike for five or ten minutes on their way home from work.

We will continue to build solidarity with the strikes and encourage workers to join the trade union movement and take part in the fight to end zero hour contracts and for a £10 an hour minimum wage.