Action Against Workfare - 29 March - 6 April.

Yesterday Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty blockaded four salvation Army shops! See their report here... inspiration for the week of action in four weeks' time?

Please forward the call out far and wide!

Stop workfare in its tracks – Take action 29 March – 6 April

Tens of organisations have already quit workfare. The government will not reveal which organisations are still using it for fear the schemes will collapse. Its contractors complain that they have lost hundreds of placements due to public pressure.

But they’re trying it again with a new scheme – “Community Work Placements” – launching on 1 April 2014 which will force claimants to work for six months without pay. Six months – 780 hours – is more than twice the maximum community service sentence. Workfare does not help people find jobs and being unemployed is not a crime.

This new workfare scheme is part of a raft of draconian measures, misleadingly called “Help to Work”, which are designed to increase sanctions (benefit stoppages) and undermine wages still further.

For the workfare schemes to happen, they need places to send people, but tens of large charities have already quit. Oxfam stated that the schemes were incompatible with its goal of reducing povertyin the UK. Liverpool CVS has condemned the scheme in the strongest possible terms.

Our action can stop companies, charities and councils from exploiting forced unpaid work and make sure this new scheme falls flat on its face. Wherever you are, however you can contribute, take action on 29 March-6 April.

Target the charities:

• Friendly local charity or Volunteer Service? Invite them to commit not to use forced unpaid work by signing our pledge.
• Big workfare user like RSPCA, YMCA, Salvation Army, The Conservation Volunteers, British Heart Foundation, Barnardos or Cancer Research? Write to them, organise a demo or encourage people you know not to donate until they stop using workfare!
• Approach workers in the voluntary sector to ask them to pressure their employer not to participate in the scheme. There are often Union branches for voluntary sector workers you could contact.
• Visit boycottworkfare.org daily during the week to take part in online action!

Target the councils:

• Find out if we know about workfare in your local council on this spreadsheet.
• If so, adapt our press release and expose them in your local paper.
• Contact local Unison, GMB or Unite branches for council workers and encourage them to pass the motion to challenge workfare and to take it up with the council.
• Find out if any sympathetic local councillors would take a motion to the council for it to boycott workfare. It has been done!

Support each other to get our rights:

• Order know your rights leaflets to give out at the job centre or around your local community – email info[at]boycottworkfare.org with how many you would like!
• Thinking about starting a mutual support group? Invite an existing group to help get it going with a workshop or talk.

Want to target the companies involved in workfare as well?
There are currently call outs to target Peacocks, and Grosvenor Casinos. Or there’s our crowd-sourced list of workfare exploiters to whom you may also like to pay a visit.

More about the Community Work Placement scheme:

• Show the charities which bid to run the Community Work Placement schemes your disgust at their role in sanctioning people and driving forced work in the UK
• The companies and the charities profiting from Community Work Placements
• Boycott Workfare’s press release when the CWP scheme was announced – pointing out thefailure of its pilot scheme
• (Heavy reading but) The DWP’s info pack for “delivery partners”

Making links:

• One year too long for the Bedroom Tax – End it now! Protests are organised in Leeds, Manchester, Ashfield, Harlow, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Southend and London on Saturday 5 April. Why not go along, make the links and pay a visit to a local workfare provider afterwards?
• The TUC has called for a Fair Pay Fortnight from 24 March-4 April. Despite the threat it poses to members’ jobs, workfare (zero pay work) doesn’t seem to be on the agenda. The TUC currently even has policy supporting sanctions (PDF – 3.6, pg 31). Our week of action at the same time is a chance to point out that trade unions urgently need to take action on workfare and sanctions.

TAKE ACTION ON 29 MARCH – 6 APRIL TO STOP WORKFARE IN ITS TRACKS AND PUSH BACK AGAINST SANCTIONS.

Whatever you’re planning – let us know and we’ll help spread the word! info[at]boycottworkfare.org