The most northern location of the EuroMayday parades in 2005 was Jyväskylä, a small town of 80.000 inhabitants in central Finland. On mayday’s eve, a colourful demonstration of approximately 200 participants was led by a dj-van while the sounds of hip hop and reggae maintained the energy and cheerfulness. The banners on the sides of the demonstration included "prekariaatti.org", "European guaranteed income", "Appropriate urban space", "Robin tax 100%" etc.
From the center of Jyväskylä the parade moved into the direction of one of the two Lidl stores in the city. A dozen participants went inside the store in order to transform it into a place for a mayday picnic. Picnic food supplies and refreshments were conveniently available from the store. The picnic was held not only in order to have fun but also in order to compensate for the unpaid hours of Lidl workers by doing exactly what Lidl as an employer suspects its workers: appropriating products without paying. Simultaneously leaflets were distributed inside and outside to emphasize e.g. the following aspects:
Lidl is using sacking during "test period" (maximum of 4 months in the beginning of the contract, during which it can be cancelle without notice) as a threat and punishment against workers who adhere to their rights "too well", even if this violates the Finnish law on job contracts
Lidl is forcing its employees to do obligatory overtime work, even if overtime work should always be voluntary. Additionally, sometimes overtime work is not paid at all.
Lidl has a systematic procedure of inspecting its employees’ bags and other property for the purpose of control and humiliatin, even if the workers should have no obligation to accept this without a proper reason.
A quote from the leaflet: "Lidl is the European equivalent to Wal-Mart. The effects of its activity reach also the practices of its subcontractors and competitors, making working conditions worse and worse. Lidl is not the ’root of all evil’ but rather it is an important front in the struggle on service workers’ working conditions, because it has had a significant effect in the current, intolerable development of these conditions. It is a front in which the common tensions of diverse and local job market situations are present in an extremely clear way. In general, the goal of Lidl as an employer is to produce a model of submissive and flexible (always on the employer’s conditions) worker. On Mayday 2005 we are exactly what is the worst nightmare of Lidl as an employer: disobedient, struggling, self-organizing and innovative flexworkers."
From Lidl the parade moved back into the center of the city stopping in the central park, where the party continued for a few hours, as dj’s took care of the entertainment. By choosing this place - that has been under reconstruction in the recent years in order to make it more "controllable" - the organizers of the event emphasized how important it is to create uncommercial spaces for autonomous culture as an alternative to the privatization of public spaces and the permeation of capitalist needs and relations.
Photo Gallery on GlobalProject
Photo Gallery on jkl.euromayday.org