Brixton Ritzy workers to join May Day strike

Ritzy workers joined a demonstration earlier this month to welcome East Dulwich Picturehouse workers – the latest to join the living wage campaign
Ritzy workers joined a demonstration earlier this month to welcome East Dulwich Picturehouse workers – the latest to join the living wage campaign

Workers at Brixton’s Ritzy will join with those at four other Picturehouse cinemas to strike for a total of 24 hours on May Day.

It will repeat one of the largest strikes in UK cinema history when the same workers took action in April.

Workers at the Picturehouse chain have been striking since last September for the Living Wage, currently £9.75 in London, £8.45 elsewhere.

Picturehouse continues to refuse to negotiate, even though its owner Cineworld announced a £93.8 million post-tax profit for 2016.

Monday’s action will take the total number of strike days at Picturehouse cinemas in the last eight months to more than 40.

May Day is the international workers’ day, when campaigns for workers’ rights and celebrations of past successes are remembered.

Picturehouse workers from all five striking sites will take part in a May Day rally at Clerkenwell Green ( EC1R 0DU) at noon on Monday and join a march to Trafalgar Square.

Kelly Rogers, a Ritzy rep for the Bectu cinema workers’ section of the trade union Prospect, will speak at a rally in the square at 2.30pm alongside shadow chancellor John McDonnell and representatives from other unions.

The strikers will move to Picturehouse Central at the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Great Windmill Street in the West End and protest outside the cinema until 7pm.

Central worker Andrea Cencioni said: “We know that Cineworld can afford to negotiate with us on our requests for better working conditions. May Day is about justice, a more equal distribution of profit and taking a significant step towards a fairer society.”

More on the Picturehouse workers’ campaign.

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