YFJ Protest Against Workfare in Leeds and Wakefield

Protesting Outside Tesco in Leeds on Monday

Following the revelations online and in the media over companies participating in the governments workfare schemes having young people work for them who are recieving only their measly Job Seekers Allowance, activists from Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) held protests in Leeds on Monday and Wakefield on Wednesday demanding real jobs where people get paid the rate for the job, with a guarantee of work at the end of any placements.

Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs

In Leeds, YFJ activists targetted Tesco’s on Monday afternoon with young people stopping and discussing their experiences on workfare with us as well as joining in the protest. No-one we spoke to felt that working for these companies for free had done them any favours and agreed with our demands for real jobs paid at the rate for the job. After Tesco’s caved in and announced it would be offering the remaining 1,500 people, due to be refered to the company under the scheme, the offer of a four week, fully paid job, with a guaranteed job at the end of it (provided they complete the four weeks ‘satisfactorily’ – we await the defenition of this), we decided to move on and target another of the companies in the scheme. At short notice we moved our protest in Wakefield from Tesco to McDonalds and although due to the late change this was not the ideal time to hit this company, we still received a good response from those we spoke to outside the restaurant and interest in other people joining us on future protests.

For upcoming activities in the campaign, see our facebook group – ‘Yorkshire Youth Fight for Jobs & Education‘

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