Ritzy pay row: Cinema staff and Lambeth lecturers come together in fight for rights

Striking staff at the Ritzy and Lambeth College joined forces yesterday in growing rows over pay and conditions.

The strikers demonstrated outside both the Ritzy and Clapham Picturehouse.

Ritzy worker, Rob Lugg told the Blog: We all decided to march to Clapham Picturehouse, so we marched down Acre Lane in the rain, chanting and banging drums.

“When we arrived at Clapham we filled Venn street and altered the words of our chants to be about Clapham staff.

“Virtually all the Clapham staff working walked out, joined us and put on our t-shirts.”

Clapham Picturehouse were screening a live relay of King Lear from The National Theatre, where demonstrators had also gathered earlier in the day to hand out leaflets.

Highlighting the link between the two campaigns, Lugg told the Blog: “Both of our campaigns are about defending important community institutions and workers’ basic rights and conditions.

“Without access to education and decent employment what future do any of us have?”

Yesterday’s action coincided with International Workers Day, which saw a long-established trade union march and rally in central London.

Lugg said: “This is a very significant date for trade unionists as it is International Workers’ Day and many millions will be demonstrating and striking around the world.”

Managing director of Picturehouse, Lyn Goleby said: “We are working towards a position where we can offer higher pay but at this point, we cannot do so without risking job losses across the wider Picturehouse group.

“We will continue to work with BECTU to try to resolve the issue quickly and we hope that our customers will bear with us while this process comes to a conclusion.”

Find out more about the Ritzy campaign by visiting the new national campaign page on Facebook www.facebook.com/CineSolGB or follow @CineSolGB on twitter.