PUB workers are celebrating after winning a bumper pay rise following a historic first strike.
In October, 200 kitchen and bar staff from Brighton Wetherspoons at The Post and Telegraph in North Street and The Bright Helm in West Street held a demonstration for better pay and work conditions.
Their efforts were supported by MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas and MP for Kemptown and Peacehaven Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
The pub chain’s bosses have agreed to pay an extra 40p, removing the pay band for 18 to 20-year-olds and abolishing overnight shifts.
Other victories include an annual pay rise from early 2019 and staff across the country are promised an extra £1 an hour between midnight and 5am.
Read more: Brighton Wetherspoons staff threaten strike action over 'poverty wages'
Victoria Jordan, a shift leader at the Post and Telegraph, said: “Managers told us we have no support, that we would be ignored and quickly forgotten about – but we proved them wrong.
“If two pubs in the company can create this much change, imagine what we will achieve as we grow. We are already winning.”
Chris Heppell, kitchen team leader at the Post and Telegraph, said: “By organising into a trade union we’ve improved our pubs, won a substantial pay rise for Brighton and changed things we couldn’t have changed alone.
“We’ve made the company listen to us and take action.
“We will keep building our union. We want every Wetherspoons worker in the country to be paid a wage we can thrive on and to have a say in all of the decisions that affect our working lives.”
Elsie Bradley Middle, a bar associate at the Post and Telegraph, said: “The pay rise that has come into effect this month has shown that our organising really does work.
“On top of the company-wide increase, we’ve won an additional 40p pay rise for all Brighton pubs.
“If we can achieve that with just two Brighton pubs striking, imagine what we can do when we continue to build and show our strength.
“This win is just the beginning, join us in the movement.”
Wetherspoons was approached for a comment.
Read more: Wetherspoons workers stage protest and demand higher wages
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