Workers at TGI Fridays restaurants will strike for the fourth time on Friday 8 June.
Workers are now on strike at Covent Garden and Haymarket Piccadilly in London, Trafford Centre in Manchester, and Milton Keynes. Pickets were held at all sites during the last strike on Friday 1 June, and workers from the Trafford Centre restaurant met Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell at the Trade Union Congress’ (TUC) 150th birthday event at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester.
TGI Fridays introduced a new tipping policy, at two days’ notice, which redirects 40% of tips received by waiting staff to kitchen staff. With low wages for kitchen staff causing a high turnover, TGI Fridays thought the ″solution″ to a problem of their own making would be taking from the poor to give to the even-poorer.
Unite reports that a recent YouGov poll shows TGI Fridays brand’s impression score (whether someone has a positive impression of a brand) has taken a hit since February when reports of the company’s decision to take 40% of waiters’ tips without consultation hit the headlines.
• Watch a video interview with two of the TGI Fridays strikers online at: bit.ly/2JsCqLB
