The Workers Party of Britain denounces plans by Sodexo to sack 30 of the catering workers who run the London Underground canteen, some of whom have been doing the job for as long as 20 years.
For nearly 100 years, tube workers have had the benefits of a suitable canteen with meals cooked on-site. Yet despite admitting the role that decent nourishment plays in keeping workers healthy and happy, thereby raising productivity, Sodexo now plans to end this tradition of ‘home-cooked’ meals, instead subjecting diners to a diet of reheated microwave dinners devoid of all nourishment.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash had this to say: “Sodexo is a highly profitable company that is shamefully using the excuse of lower demand during Covid as a smokescreen to push through unpopular measures that will both slash jobs and mean a worse service for canteen users.”
Sodexo’s cuts are nothing to do with Covid and everything to do with maximising the company’s already fat profits, notching up fiscal revenues growth of 7.6% last year and 3.2% at the start of 2020. Sodexo clearly hopes that cutting labour costs and running the canteen on a shoestring it can wring yet more profit out of its workers.
The Workers Party of Britain welcomes the RMT’s decision to ballot the workforce for industrial action to challenge Sodexo’s vandalism, and stands ready to support this resistance in any way we can.