fahrenheit451:057

In a fortnight's time Great Britain will be on the very cusp of a historic sea-change. A seemingly interminable EU Referendum campaign will be all but over. And yet one story has managed to upstage the whole EU-In/Out slanging match. Step forward Mike Ashley, the boss of Sports Direct. Ashley was called to give evidence before a Parliamentary Select Committee concerning issues over his Company, Sports Direct's treatment of workers, abuse of their employment and other Rights including illegal underpayment of wages. And boy did he get pilloried and rightly so. Pernicious, venal, boastful, unscrupulous, hectoring,  and mendacious to an astounding degree in full view of the Media and Public; all that Mr.Ashley was missing from his wardrobe to complete his self-authored caricature as a Victorian mill owner was the iconic top hat. Yet,what single characteristic of Mr.Ashley's management style and draconian behaviour toward his Company's employees differentiates him from every other similar CEO ? Quite simply none, at least none of any discernible significance. He simply is one capitalist bastard amongst a whole legion of capitalist bastards. Sports Direct business model with its use of,according to his own evidence, an 80% zero hours contract workforce and a workplace culture of fear,uncertainty and harassment is pretty much the universal benchmark across the logistics/warehousing sector as a whole. The only genuine surprise, from my own Activist's point-of-view, is just how much of a surprise, indeed startling and shocking revelation this has been portrayed as in the Media to the general Public. Kudos to the UNITE Union for spearheading a very long and arduous campaign against Ashley's High Street Empire. The Trades Union movement on the whole has alas, not effectively engaged with the spreading cancer of zero hours agency contracts,nor with the cold blooded business practices that all Agencies utilise with virtual impunity against the many millions of workers now wholly dependent on casualised precarious work. Ashley's antiquated, oppressive tyranny is a symptom and a pretty major one at that, but clearly what needs to be addressed and focused on is the cause of such heinous, inhumane, and demeaning conditions of employment being allowed to exist and take shape in the first place.