The Ambridge Socialist
1st May
Celebrating May Day on the Village Green: join a union!
The Ambridge Socialist and Borsetshire Trades Council are holding a May Day rally on the Village Green with theme of ‘join a union’.
2022 has been a tough year so far for workers in Ambridge. Berrow Farm pig unit has made redundancies and may close. Grey Gables has closed and illegally sacked all its workers. Employment opportunities beyond seasonal farm work are limited. Tracy has failed to get a job in Telesales at a kitchen equipment company, although Jazzer, redundant from the pig farm has got one. Tracy has considered working at the non-union minimum wage (at best) chicken factory but so far has swerved it.
Workers in Ambridge need to get organised, unionise and fight back. Otherwise they will continue to be picked off piecemeal by an increasingly ruthless Borsetshire ruling class.
May Day Update: Shah & Stirling attempt divide & rule & fail
It would appear that Adil Shah and Oliver Stirling noted the strength of the Ambridge Socialist May Day rally and have acted to try address growing anger amongst the Grey Gables workforce over the hotel’s sudden closure. They have offered the existing manager Kathy Perks a job on a new contract to manage the transition to a new Grey Gables after she slammed their failure to consult staff. To her credit she refused. They are also ‘considering’ whether some staff with shorter service such as Tracy might get a better pay off. Finally they have decided to offer a free bar to all staff on the final night-Thursday.
Ambridge Socialist Editor Keith Flett said, this why we have called for Grey Gables to be unionised. Stirling and Shah’s divide and rule strategy must be rejected out of hand. If this is what the campaign so far has made them do, a continued fightback could make them retain ALL staff during the transition period on new contracts with better terms and conditions.
Redundancy and class
Tracy will get little money from statutory redundancy at Grey Gables even with an enhanced pay off. There are bills to pay, living expenses and food to buy. Meanwhile Ian and Adam have been reviewing how to spend his redundancy money which according to some reports may be towards £30K with a 3 month enhancement on statutory terms. That is not a huge amount but in a low wage economy far from insignificant. They have invested in a pizza oven with Ian looking to set up a street food business.
Betting the farm
With a divorce settlement between Alice and Chris potentially pending, the issue of the valuation of the farm and its possible split up and sale is being reviewed by Brian. Stella has pointed out Alice’s share could be brought out by other family members. This would be expensive and Brian has sounded out Adam if Ian’s redundancy money might help. It won’t. Firstly because it’s not enough and secondly because Ian has already spent a chunk of what he is due to receive on the pizza oven.
In other news
Clarrie has suffered an injury at cricket practice
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