“Scared to go to work” – the bosses bullying and abusing workers
The Communist readers
British chancellor Rachel Reeves has recently been touring the world in a desperate bid to attract investors – with little to show for it as yet. But fear not: The Communist readers may be able to give her a helping hand!
Reports from our readers expose the calculating cruelty of car parts’ manufacturers at Tata, vicious victimisation by managers at McDonald’s, and senseless scolding of school heads in academies. It seems like Britain truly is a paradise on earth for capitalist investors!
In fact, as reported below, Britain’s ruling class seems happy to sell off its family silver – in the form of Royal Mail – to Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský. All this without a flinch from the union leaders – as a matter of fact, they actively support it!
Both workers’ conditions and the Royal Mail sell-off reflect the deep impasse of British capitalism. Rather than investing into productivity-raising technology, the bosses only look to make quick profits by squeezing them out of workers, and pawning off their industrial assets.
Only a fighting leadership in the labour movement, armed with bold socialist policies, can address this decline. This is what the RCP is aiming to build. Join us in the fight today!
Whistle-blower sacked over car safety – capitalists don’t care if they kill you!
Hazar Denli was a mechanical engineer at Tata Technologies. His job was to test car chassis and suspension designs to ensure they were road safe.
It quickly became clear to him that his employers were cutting corners – less time for testing, working with an insufficient team, a procession of managers quitting…culminating in a series of shocking component failures in the VinFast model.
When Denli proposed to managers that parts were unsafe and needed to be redesigned, they decided it would cost too much and risk profits by delaying production. They went into production fully aware that their faulty vehicles could seriously harm drivers.
Denli understandably resigned from this role and took a similar job at Jaguar Land Rover (which, tragically, also fell under the Tata Group).
Soon, reports began to surface of the VinFast models having horrific accidents.
One had burst into flames in a showroom; others had crashed with the wheels falling off. Tragically, a family of four was killed when their car lost control and crashed.
Denli took to the internet and made a post detailing all the sordid truth he had experienced at Tata Technologies.
Soon, the company’s directors caught wind of Denli’s post. Their reaction? They contacted their colleagues at JLR and secured Denli’s sacking!
As if this wasn’t conspiratorial enough, they then managed to get him blacklisted from the recruitment platform Magnit. Any future job applications he makes in the industry will be automatically declined.
The capitalists are quick to ruin one worker’s life – and perfectly willing to kill people with their unsafe products – if it means turning a greater profit.
We say, enough! Workers must control every industry to put people before profits!
Deon DeKlerk, Nottingham
‘Scared to go to work’ – McDonald’s abuse scandal
I recently read a report about how McDonald’s workers – already underpaid – have been subjected to assault and abuse by their management.
One worker was bullied for his disability; another was a victim of “homophobic slurs”. A 17-year-old girl said her shift manager asked for sex in exchange for more hours.
We can be sure this does not stop at the doors of McDonald’s, but is present in many workplaces, especially the most exploitative.
This is an outrage, and we shouldn’t stand for it! Ordinary people, often teenagers and vulnerable people, are forced into these terrible conditions because of the crisis of capitalism. Growing unemployment and a crumbling welfare system traps them in such terrible jobs.
Whether it’s the politicians in parliament, or the bastard bosses of McDonald’s, these scumbags need to go! Our lives and our safety mean nothing to them. They are interested in one thing – filling their fat pockets whilst we suffer.
With power in the hands of the majority, we could hold these bastards accountable, kick them out of their abusive positions of power, and take charge of running society for ourselves.
Solomon Dobbs
A day in the life of a school tech support
I work as tech support in a school. My job is 90 percent turning it off and turning it back on again. The other 10 percent is typically “move machine from point A to point B”.
I arrived at 07:35, five minutes late thanks to road closures and the subsequent traffic. The head of the school marches into my office as if he had a warrant for my arrest.
As I set my bag down and get my laptop ready, he shouts about how me being five minutes late is not setting a good example for the students who will not be arriving until 07:50.
He runs a £14 million pound business, he tells me, and he expects me to be here between 07:30 and 15:30 because that’s when my company agreed I would be there.
I try to ignore the irony of a man who considers himself a socialist bragging about his secondary academy being a business.
He storms out of my office, having made himself feel important, just as my laptop loads up the service desk for me to see the total amount of work for the morning…
“Paper needed in staff room printer” – logged at 07:38.
I chuckled to myself, realising that with the head coming into my office full of boom and bluster, he had actually stopped me from being able to keep his £14 million “paperless” business from being able to use one of the printers.
While it may seem like this head is pigheaded, I will say this: he cares a great deal about his school, but he has been bent into seeing it as a business thanks to the joys of academisation. This is what academies were meant to do – to introduce ‘business thinking’ into education.
And after all that’s dealt with, I go back to my room and sit. I spend the little daylight we have at this time of year reading our books, reading our paper, reading our articles – and waiting to see if someone, at some point, needs some more paper loading into a printer.
Royal Mail takeover: What’s a promise worth?
The sale of Royal Mail’s parent company to Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský has been approved by the UK government and is set to proceed.
Despite this heralding an uncertain future for the service, however, CWU general secretary Dave Ward has said that “taking a golden share…I think that that’s the best platform that the union could get for a potential renationalisation in the future if this doesn’t work out”.
This stance stinks of a lack of scrutiny of Křetínský’s intentions. A capitalist robber baron who is happy to take on outsized debts to fund his purchases is hardly the stuff that stable service is made of.
And this is without examining the details of the deal – such as an employee benefit fund that can be used for “investment in Royal Mail”, as well as for employees directly. As the Guardian noted, this sounds suspiciously like a way for Křetínský to invest without spending his own capital.
As we have stated before, the only way forward for Royal Mail is nationalisation, and the CWU must put this forward. Not another penny to the fat-cats! It’s high time to deliver for our class instead!
Harrison Salkeld
