PICTUREHOUSE Cinema workers have vowed to defend the right to strike, defy the threats being made against them and proceed with their nine days of strike action to demand a living wage.
‘Any employee taking part in those strikes is likely to be dismissed,’ Picturehouse wrote in a threatening letter to the BECTU union that represents the cinema workers. The nine days of strike action are planned to coincide with the London Film Festival which takes place from 4 to 15 October.
This is the first strike since the workers reballotted to renew their strike mandate, which returned an overwhelming 91% ‘YES’ for strike. The Ritzy was closed by a strike during last year’s festival when it was due to host two festival screenings. Picturehouse Central in London’s West End and Hackney Picturehouse are host venues for the festival this year.
Workers from all five London sites involved in the campaign will begin their first strike this Wednesday (4 October) and join a demonstration in Leicester Square during the opening gala of the festival.
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of Bectu said: ‘Picturehouse management know they have no legal grounds to stop the proposed strike action during the London Film Festival and have now resorted to threatening their own staff.
‘We will not be bullied and we will robustly defend any legal action. If the Picturehouse management are confident that they are paying the living wage why have they not signed up as a living wage employer? We challenge them to do so.’
The London living wage is calculated by an independent body, the Living Wage Foundation, and is £9.75 an hour. Obi Saiq, a striker at Hackney Picturehouse, said: ‘We are striking for a wage that we can live on and for basic rights at work. Until Picturehouse negotiates with us – which they haven’t done in over a year of strike action – we have no choice but to fight.
‘Our strike action will go ahead and we expect to significantly disrupt the London Film Festival.’
Nesa Kelmendi, a striker at Picturehouse Central, said: ‘These threats would be hilarious if they weren’t outrageous and cynical.
‘We’re told we’re already paid the living wage – but how can that possibly be true when we’ve already been on strike for a living wage for over a year? ‘I and other workers won’t be deterred by cynical legal letters. I am much more scared of poverty pay, and having to choose between food and heating.’
Mooky Greidinger, Cineworld’s chief executive officer, said in the company’s annual report that 2016 was ‘another record year’ for the group and spoke of its ‘gratifying operating performance’. His total remuneration more than doubled to £2,588,000 in 2016 from £1,213,000 in 2015.
Sophie Mason, negotiations officer for BECTU covering cinema workers, told News Line yesterday: ‘We didn’t think that Picturehouse could sink any lower but they are now threatening to throw pots of cash at the courts to bluster and bully their workers out of their jobs. This primitive behaviour has no place in modern society. We will defend our members by any means necessary with all the passion and vigour that supporters of the dispute across the industry and the world would expect.’
