Fast food restaurant staff really poorly treated in Perpignan, France by the ‘Quick’ chain.

Another thing I did whilst visiting Perpignan was to photograph a demo outside a branch of the French MacDonalds, Quick.

A slideshow of that demo can be viewed here, you will get a more complete experience of the event by looking at this here click here for

The fast food restaurant staff at this branch of Quick had been poorly treated because of their involvement with the Union. I was shocked to hear how long term members of staff had been sacked solely because of Union membership. The general theme here amongst all the staff is that they were all terrified of losing their jobs, they were all local to the branch, loyal and non-transient ie. this was not a workforce composed of students working through the summer, transient or temporary workers etc.. rather the people I spoke to really wanted their jobs back, proud of their work at a busy city centre restaurant and dependent on their job as their only source of income supporting families in an expensive city. There was an overwhleming feeling of vulnerability in the group demonstrating I felt, they wanted the jobs back but many felt just their presence on a Union organised event would seal their fate. Many members of staff avoided the demo I was told, especially the young mothers who work at the restaurant who fellow workers said several times where particulalry vulnrable as they where basically exploited becuase of their dependency on the job.

This is just a brief look at this story, but I feel there is a real issue here, the vulnerability of fast food restaurant workers all over France. I’d be interested if anybody could suggest how they might be able to support the workers in the demo here and their campaign or if anybody has done any similiar work then to get in touch. The Union working on this campaign can be found here at www.cgt.fr

‘Maghreb forever…’ Maghreb life in Perpignan, France.

المغرب العربي al-Maġrib al-ʿArabī.

I have a slideshow of my life for the Maghreb in Perpignan here click here for

The Maghreb is the region of North Africa that most commonly includes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In Perginan in the South of France where I visited recently, the North African Muslim community are confined to a specific area on the old town. A ghetto if you will. They live alongside the Roma population, also living in a highly defined geography. Within this area there are street divisions which mark boundaries between Roma gypsies territory and the Muslim population’s. A small but busy market is the centre of daily activity and naturally the area has the best cafes.

‘I dont feel French. when Morocco play France in football, its Morocco all the way. Maghreb forever…’
Mohomammed Luyckx, a 21 year old Moroccan living in Perpignan and hanging out on the streets of the Maghreb neighbourhood.

Touch

I watched this man on the Paris Metro, he was stressed it was rush hour. Her hand just stroaked the back of his neck like this and they didnt speak. He relaxed, then our carriages went separate ways.

2 contemporary photographs, one found photograph

The two photographs above are of a plastic barrier in the River: there is something permanent about the plastic, its colours and the nature of plastic, the fact that it lasts for so long, it will be lost out in the river for a long long time like some sort of permanent driftwood. The other is of a car outside an Islamic community centre in Liverpool. The third photograph is extremely sad I think.

Music project with the city’s street homeless

click here for a slideshow of the rehearsal for the gig

This gig is the culmination of a project that has provided homeless people in Liverpool with access to musical instruments and the chance to perform live at a music venue. The project is about providing ‘hands on’ access and giving those who might not have had the chance to to try this type of thing before the opporunity to do so. Good fun, come along and support the gig, the participants and the projects vision.

I love this anonymous photograph I found, its a great photograph I think, I love the sun on the tree.

Dialect map

I like this project
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/
especially the word map
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/results/wordmap/

This is Brian, he’s 92 and I met him last year. I lived near where he lives in London when I was a kid and would speak like him if I had not moved to the north of England, this interests me, how language and dialect is shaped by where you grow up and so on.

Soldier and nurse, lovers in Habana, Cuba

Beautiful old photograph 1873 with field notes

The lack of field notes on the modern digital file or negative is a crying shame, ok you can put notes in the digital file but when the photograph as object looks this beautiful then I’m wondering what will happen to the way we keep photographs, store them and cherish them, some how storing them digitally doesnt seem to me at least to have the same appeal..?

Dock road

Cuba fundraising, thank you

Thanks to everyone who helped me raise £2469.64 in total for the Music Fund for Cuba this year when i cycled around Cuba. This was a great event and great charity. This photograph was taken in Havana. We visited the charities and the destinations for the funds you raised and were really impressed. Good stuff, if you’re reading this, think about doing the ride next year, well, well worth it.