Every worker deserves a Living Wage and has the right to representation by a union of their choice. Picturehouse Cinemas should pay the living wage to their staff and recognise their chosen union, the BECTU sector of Prospect.

Loving films and working in a cinema should not mean living on poverty wages. But that’s how it goes for the staff at the Ritzy.

Kevin has worked at the Ritzy for six years. Like many of his colleagues, he loves helping to bring great films to the community. What he doesn’t love is the gritty reality of his poverty wages, particularly as he and his partner have just brought a child into the world and have been pushed out of their house by a demanding landlord. The paternity pay he received and the low rate of his wage are nowhere near enough to support a child comfortably.

Enter the scene Mooky Greidinger. Mooky is the CEO of Cineworld, the corporation behind your local Picturehouse cinemas. Mooky earned £1.2 million in 2015 - which equates to £575 per hour - and the post-tax profit of the company stood at £83.8 million. Kevin and his colleagues are merely asking for £9.75 per hour!

The Ritzy Picturehouse thrives when Brixton thrives. Mooky knows film lovers and Picturehouse members don’t want to see Kevin and the staff at the Ritzy cinema exploited. That’s why pressure from the customers works. When the community and the staff come together, we win!

The campaign began in 2007 by Ritzy workers and their union BECTU (the Ritzy being the only Picturehouse cinema with recognition for their chosen union). Our aim was to raise ourselves off the minimum wage, and we won with the help and support from the local community.

Seven years later, in 2014, we returned with 13 high-profile strikes pushing for the London Living Wage. When the workers, our union, and the community came together, we managed to win a 26% pay rise in increments over two years and an agreement to return to negotiations towards the Living Wage in June 2016. In that meeting last year, Picturehouse and Cineworld representatives backtracked on the agreement and refused to negotiate on any points in the workers’ pay claim.

These include:

- The London Living Wage

- Company sick pay for all staff

- Company maternity/paternity pay for all staff

- Fair pay rises for different job roles

The BECTU sector of Prospect is our chosen union and is the chosen union of workers at other Picturehouse sites. However, Picturehouse and Cineworld are working very hard to hinder BECTU’s presence at other sites.

Other independent cinemas can afford to pay the Living Wage with Curzon Cinemas (where the BECTU sector of Prospect is also the recognised union for all its workers). Curzon recently implemented the Living Wage and the London Living Wage at all their cinemas both in London and across the UK.

What we are asking for isn't unreasonable. Everyone deserves a real Living Wage and the right to representation by a union of their choice at their workplace. But we need your help to make this a reality. Please back the campaign by signing this petition.