“We’re temporary pawns”: The Royal Mail strike breakers speak out
David Forster, 30, is also a father, and lost his job in a building firm last October after five years. “I can’t even afford a car,” he said as he locked up his bike. “I get soaking wet every day on this bike coming in.” It’s his fourth week on the job. “I was earning £300 a week before, now it’s £200, but I’ve been unemployed for a year. I’ve got a little girl and rent to pay,” he said
By Matt Kennard on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 - 576 words.
Royal Mail and Manpower, the recruiting agency they’ve entrusted with supplying 400 temporary employees for its Dartford sorting office, are curiously tight-lipped about where these new recruits are being trained. It’s not quite Area 51 in Texas, but it takes a morning and afternoon in Kent to eventually track down Swan Business Park where Royal Mail recently rented extra space to keep mail moving over the Christmas period.
Inside the glass building there’s a temporary reception with a temporary receptionist in a high-visibility jacket. The manager says he can’t let Manpower employees talk on the premises. But when they leave to go home the Manpower workers, who will replace Royal Mail’s strikers today, are keen to talk about how they ended up in this dreary business park.
Mosur Abadi, 29, from nearby Belvedere, is on her way in for the 2pm to 10pm shift. She lost her job as an accountant as the recession took hold. “I lost my job back in January,” she said. “At the moment this is better than nothing and I’m looking for work at the same time. I’m indifferent really and this is a huge pay cut, but hopefully I can get something else before Christmas.”
Smoking a cigarette by the bike lock-up is 18-year-old Scott Brokwel. This is his second day on site. He’s been unemployed for a month after losing his packing job in a warehouse. “I got this through Manpower, they were giving out urgent jobs, so it was pretty easy,” he said. “It’s just to keep me going until Christmas, I’m not sure if they are keeping people on.”
Manpower’s temporary employees working at Royal Mail are receiving £5.80 an hour before tax, but after agency fees. This is less than half permanent Royal Mail wages.
“We’re just temporary pawns,” said Charlie McAlister, 40, who has been working for Manpower for less than a month. “We are getting less money and no benefits of any sort.” He recently had a job as a carer but gave it up to look after his mother. “Look, we have to make money,” he said. “We have to feed out family, pay our mortgages. No-one is having a go at the Royal Mail workers, at the end of the day we are all victims of the recession.”
With security and management peering out through the glass walls, suspicion rises. “I can’t talk, otherwise they’ll see and I’ll lose my job,” I’m told repeatedly.
But Mateusz Zaryzycki, a Polish 35-year-old, doesn’t seem to mind. He quit his job as a graphic designer after he his pay stopped as the recession bit. “I used to be £1,800 a month, now I’m on £5.80 an hour,” he said. “How’s that for progress?” This is his fifth day working at Royal Mail. “It doesn’t matter what the job is. I’ve got three kids, I have to work, I have to feed them,” he said. “Graphic design in London is a real fight, there are a lot of designers and hardly any jobs.”
David Forster, 30, is also a father, and lost his job in a building firm last October after five years. “I can’t even afford a car,” he said as he locked up his bike. “I get soaking wet every day on this bike coming in.” It’s his fourth week on the job. “I was earning £300 a week before, now it’s £200, but I’ve been unemployed for a year. I’ve got a little girl and rent to pay,” he said.
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Loading ...Matt Kennard
26London
Matt Kennard graduated from the Journalism School at Columbia University as a Toni Stabile Investigative scholar in 2008. He now works for the Financial Times in London. He has written for the Guardian, Salon, The Comment Factory and the Chicago Tribune, amongst others. In 2006 he won the Guardian Student Feature Writer of the Year Award
mattkennard@thecommentfactory.com
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