Dundee youth demand a future at Tories sham unemployment summit

Dundee Youth Fight for Jobs disrupted Scottish Secretary of State Michael Moore’s National Summit on Youth Unemployment, with a large protest at Dundee College’s Gardyne campus that included local trade unionists, anti cuts campaigners and the Scottish Unemployed Workers Network, on March 15.

Clearly the Tories wanted to bury the day’s bad news, the highest youth unemployment figures since 1995 by staging a public relations circus in an area of high unemployment. Politicians from all the main parties gleefully accepted invitations to the summit, as did big business lobbyists.

The only people left marginalised outside were the college students who had their classes and campus disrupted and unemployed youth, of whom a handful were allowed to enter as long as they didn’t utter a word of opposition.  Given the anger over Workfare schemes being exposed as slave labour for big business, it’s not surprising that the guest speaker Tory Cabinet minister, Iain Duncan Smith was kept as far as possible from protestors.

This summit was a sham, with no debate or chance to question the politicians who were allowed to promote the Workfare schemes and attacks on the unemployed, unchallenged.

Youth Fight for Jobs activists put the alternative case in the media and won the support of students and staff who signed our petition against Workfare and asked for more info about Youth Fight for Jobs.

Dundee College student and Youth Fight for Jobs activist Wayne Scott was interviewed on local and national radio and quoted in the major Scottish press.

Wayne explained that young people in Dundee want to work but are being failed by the politicians of all the main parties whose policies of public sector cuts are condemning a generation to mass unemployment.

 He called for the scrapping of the entire infamous work programme, designed by the Tories and Iain Duncan Smith to exploit and stigmatise benefit claimants and enrich private fraudsters at our expense.

Wayne raised the demands of the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign an increase in public investment to create real jobs that pay a living wage and skilled paid apprenticeships that guarantee work on completion.

In 2010-11, Dundee College was decimated by the cutting of twenty courses and the closure of two campuses. College managers seemed proud of the fact they were hosting politicians who are destroying education, treating the protest with contempt and used the police to block students taking part in the protest back into the buildings for refreshment or classes.

So as not to inconvenience the politicians and dignitaries at the summit, they closed the car park to students and staff for the whole day much to the anger of many who had to get buses or walk to a campus that is situated in the outskirts of the city.

As the protest got larger and louder, politicians and big business dignitaries in smart suits rushed past. We met a chief executive from a multinational energy company (she wouldn’t tell us which!)based in Aberdeen who in her words wasn’t interested in youth unemployment but saw the summit as a good opportunity to lobby UK and Scottish government ministers.

Local Labour MSP Jenny Marra tried to talk Youth Fight for Jobs activists into joining the Labour Party, but had no answers when we explained that the Future Jobs Fund scheme was also exploitative as young people would be paid less than the minimum wage for working full time and that Labour would not commit to reversing the Tories public sector cuts.

Health and Social care students rushed out to join us and brought a banner they had just made in class after persuading their tutor to give them a break to join the protest. Under the SNP government’s cuts package, amounting to removing £55 million from Scotland’s college budgets their course provision will be ended in a matter of months, and they will have to travel hundreds of miles to continue studies. Dundee Youth Fight for Jobs will be meeting the Health and Social Care students in the next weeks to set up a campaign. 

The SNP’s new Youth Employment minister Angela Constance, invited three protestors, including Wayne Scott from Youth Fight for Jobs into the summit for a discussion.  He reported that “I did agree with one point that Angela Constance made, that we are never going to find common ground. The minister commented that she sympathises with our protest as she considers herself an “ordinary person”, However most ordinary people are not on a salary of over £60,000 a year. I met her with a student who was voicing her concerns over the number of places on her social care course being cut in half. This measure would see many students not have a place at college next year possibly thrown into the dole queues. When I pointed this out, she replied that it would be impossible to not follow the  cuts agenda passed down by Westminster.

She was also not clear on her position on the slave labour workfare scheme. Commenting that she thinks such schemes give young people work experience. Why then can unemployed people on these schemes not receive a living wage? Massive companies like McDonalds who are part of this scheme made over £1 billion in profit last year and can easily afford to pay all of their workers a living wage.The SNP are posing as a radical alternative to the Tories but in reality their opposition to Workfare is weak and their proposals to create jobs are guided by the same principles. The training and apprenticeship schemes they are creating will still see young people exploited by big business and charities for a low income. We demand the Scottish government reverses the cuts and invests in a program of real job creation and public works, expanding public services”

For over a year anti cuts and unemployed activists in Dundee such as Harvey Duke, have publicly challenged Iain Duncan Smith to come and debate his ideas on the welfare state and unemployment. He has until now, refused to come anywhere near Dundee, but the summit at Dundee College provided a safe photo opportunity, IDS didn’t have to worry about being challenged as only his politician and big business friends were allowed to speak.

Youth Fight for Jobs activists got word that Iain Duncan Smith was visiting one of the two job centres in Dundee city centre (he is planning to close the other one!) later in the afternoon. We hoped to renew the Youth Fight for Jobs campaigns long running saga of encounters with the work and pensions secretary (see www.youthfightforjobs.com for recent reports of IDS dismissing the Jarrow Marchers and manhandling a YFJ activist on an anti workfare protest in London).

IDS and his aides sprinted past us into the building helped by the police presence and private G4S security guards. We never got to see him come out as he sneaked away through a private back entrance.

But the Tories won’t escape us that easily! On March 24, we will be demonstrating with Scotland's trade unions at the Tory Conference in Troon against youth unemployment, austerity and workfare.

Tell the Tories we won't work for free! March for Jobs (Troon, March 24)

March for Jobs at Tory Party conference

Saturday 24 March, Troon

Assemble 12pm South Beach Esplanade

Scrap Workfare, We want real jobs now!  

Huge public anger exists at the exposure of companies like Tesco participating in the government’s workfare schemes forcing unemployed youth to work for free.  The government has announced it will drop threats to stop benefits if people pulled out part way through their ‘work experience’ scheme.
This is another nail in the coffin of workfare, but unfortunately ‘work experience’ is only one scheme amongst a number. In many of the other workfare schemes the threat of sanctions has yet to be removed.
The past few weeks have seen a number of companies pull out of or suspend/review their involvement with these schemes as the protests organised by Youth Fight for Jobs and others have panicked them. HMV and Burger King have announced they are dropping out in the last week, with Boots joining them even after the government made its announcement. The effect of all this is to show these schemes up for the shambles they really are.
These companies have plenty of money to create jobs that pay a decent wage. McDonalds made over £1 billion in profits, Primark £300 million over the last year. The scandal is that they already make huge profits by exploiting a low paid workforce of mainly young people, and by avoiding tax. Rather than creating jobs, the government is effectively subsidising these companies with public money, both in terms of giving them some free workers for 4 or 8 weeks at a time, but also subsidising the training of their workforce. As well as workfare schemes using the unemployed as slave labour they are also an attack on the conditions and rights of paid retail workers.
Tory ministers such as Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling have attacked Youth Fight for Jobs and opponents of Workfare for being “job snobs” and claim that we want to prevent young people from getting valuable work experience.
Youth Fight for Jobs activists have explained to millions in the media and on the streets, over the last few weeks, that young people are not lazy or snobs, we want the chance to work. But we will not be forced to work for free!
We won’t work under threats of losing the money and benefits we need to live and we won’t work for free for fat cat bosses who make huge profits and then don’t even pay their tax.
The main argument that the government has attempted to marshal in their defence is that this is the only way young people can gain experience of working for their CV to make themselves employable. But this belies the real issue of why young people can’t find work. The reality is that there are only around half a million job vacancies and over two and a half million unemployed.
Whilst the government has been claiming a 50% success rate for the scheme, in reality this is the number of people who are not claiming JSA by the end of 13 weeks, which could be for a multitude of reasons including going into education or even dropping out entirely. Looking at figures presented by companies they are far below the government’s 50% claim, Tesco gave jobs to 300 out of 1400 participants, 21%, Holland and Barrett gave jobs to 50 out of 250 participants, 20%, and the Greggs gave jobs to 14 out of 40 participants, 35%.
As well as the private companies who benefit from these slave labour schemes, shady private companies such as A4E, are acting as middlemen taking contracts worth hundreds of millions from the government to put unemployed young people into the grasp of the companies who want free labour. Emma Harrison the former head of A4E paid herself £8.8 million out of public money living in her words in “utter luxury” at our expense. A4E is now being investigated for alleged fraud amid claims it made up figures of people it got back into work.

  

We will continue to keep up the pressure on the companies on our high streets who want to exploit young people with protests and expose the fraudster work programme providers. On March 21 Youth Fight for Jobs is organising anti workfare protests across the UK.  

Youth Fight for Jobs welcomes the initiative of the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) in calling a national demonstration against youth unemployment and austerity cuts at the Scottish Conservative conference on March 24. This is an opportunity to begin to bring together the trade union movement and young people across Scotland to build mass campaign against the threat of long term mass youth unemployment and slave labour workfare schemes. As well as focusing anger on the Tories and the coalition in Westminster, the demonstration will show opposition to the cuts to colleges and education and job losses being implemented by the SNP Scottish government and by Labour led local council administrations.
Despite being critical of the Tories on workfare, none of the main political parties in Scotland have protected Scotland’s young people from unemployment and the effects of the cuts, or offer an alternative.  
The SNP’s new youth employment minister, Angela Constance, has arrived with a fanfare promising to invest £30milllion in job creation. Much has been made of the first part of this funding package, creating over 1,000 temporary jobs for young people in the third sector.  This will have little impact on the scale of youth unemployment, with the latest figures showing 102,000 16-24 year olds out of work in Scotland.  Added to this the 70,000 job losses and recruitment freeze implemented by the SNP in the public sector, and the fall in private sector vacancies with Scotland slipping into recession means thousands of Scottish youth joining the dole queues every month.  
Labour in opposition offer only the Future Jobs Fund, a scheme where public sector workers who have had jobs cut are replaced by young people doing the same work but being paid at “apprenticeship level” below the minimum wage. The politicians accept the logic of market driven austerity and the idea of worsening the conditions of young people, forcing our generation to pay for the banker’s crisis. They tell us that the basic elements of a decent standard of living, a paid job, access to education and public services are unrealistic as long as their system, capitalism, is in crisis.  It’s up to young people and with the support of the trade union movement to organise and fight for our future. 

Youth Fight for Jobs Scotland will be marching on the Tory conference demanding:

• A day’s pay for a day’s work! All unemployed people on work schemes to be paid, no exceptions

• All work schemes should guarantee a job at the end and be paid at a minimum wage of £8 an hour.

• Scrap the entire work programme! For a trade union led public inquiry into the fraud of private  providers kick them all out of the welfare state, open the books and seize the profits of these thieves, use their ill gotten gains to create real jobs.

• Build a mass campaign against workfare involving the trade unions, anti cuts campaigns and young people.

• Massive investment into a program of creation of real socially useful jobs and skilled, paid, apprenticeships

Contact us to get involved in the campaign and transport to the Troon demonstration.

Ring/ text 07927342060 Email youthfightscotland@gmail.com   Twitter follow YFJ Scotland

Workfare Campaigning across Scotland (March 3)

YFJ activists in Scotland had a busy week campaigning against workfare:

We took part in the not another Lost Generation demo in Edinburgh

On Saturday March 3 we were a presence at the national day of action against workfare with protests in Dundee and Glasgow.

Dundee Workfare Protest at Primark

Youth Fight for Jobs activists in Dundee protested at the local Primark on 27 February. Security were told by mangenment to remove us. We highlighted that Primark make profits of over £300 million and if they can find the work they can find the money to pay unemployed youth.
Wayne Scott Dundee Youth Fight For Jobs Organiser was interviewed on local radio station Wave 102 and STV news.

Jobless Scottish youth condemn workfare and mobilise for national demonstration against youth unemployment

Jobless Scottish youth condemn workfare and mobilise for national demonstration against youth unemployment

The Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign in Scotland condemns the Coalition government’s Workfare schemes that exploit young people as slave labour to make profits for big business.

YFJ campaigns for increased public spending to create real jobs paid at agreed union rates.

YFJ is mobilising young people across Scotland for the national demonstration against youth unemployment, organised by the STUC, at the Tory party conference in Troon on Saturday March 24.

Eoin Lesslie, unemployed (18 ) from Dundee a recent Workfare participant “ I felt completely demoralised. I was told I was being given training that would help me into full time work. I was then made to work a full time job and only receive only my JSA. I didn’t even have a guaranteed job at the end of it. That was a year ago and I am back to square one and still out of work”

Jamie Cocozza, graduate from Glasgow, unemployed for ten months “The prospect of being placed on the work programme in the very near future gives me sleepless nights. The government should kickstart a mass programme of creating real jobs on a living wage, not condemning us to slave labour”

Wayne Scott, Youth Fight for Jobs Scotland“Schemes like Workfare are not designed to help young people into full time employment, they are designed to provide slave labour to big companies like Tesco that are making profits of £3.5 billion a year and can easily afford to pay all of their workers a living wage and create real jobs. My mother works for two different supermarkets who are using workfare schemes on a part time basis because neither will offer full time hours and she still needs state benefits on top of her low wages to survive week to week. Tory ministers like Chris Grayling are calling young people snobs for not wanting to be used as slaves on these schemes but workfare is a subsidy by the government to their super rich big business friends.
The truth is that this is a massive attack on pay, terms and conditions of retail workers. Instead replacing vacancies with real jobs, companies can bolster their profits by taking on conscripts for a month or two. We demand the creation of real jobs for young people paid a living wage or agreed trade union rate. We urge young people to march on the Tory party conference on March 24, to demand that the politicians, rather than allowing fat cat bosses, to exploit young people create the millions of jobs that are needed.
Contact YFJ for more info/ interviews/ transport details to Troon demonstration

Phone / Text 07712607224

Email youthfightscotland@gmail.com

Twitter - follow YFJ Scotland

National Demonstration against Youth Unemployment, 24 March, Troon

National Demonstration against Youth Unemployment

24 March, Troon, Ayrshire at the Scottish Conservative Conference

More details to be confirmed by the STUC Youth Commitee

Contact Youth Fight For Jobs Scotland for mobilisation and transport from your area

07712607224 youthfightscotland@gmail.com



Youth Fight for Jobs Public Meeting, Glasgow 7 March

Public and Planning meeting

Speakers invited: PCS, STUC Youth Commitee, Jarrow Marchers

7pm Glasgow City Unison Offices Bell Street

Planning campaigning for

STUC National Demo against Youth Unemployment 24 March

NUS National Walk out 14 March

Possible public sector strike 28 March

All Welcome