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Workers Beer Company - Glastonbury

Kinnell, what Rod posted really is pretty strong stuff isn't it? :mad: :(

Not disbelieving it, in fact it's all too plausible, but will want to keep an eye out ....
 
Servers and customers may have noticed the shit quality of build on the Mojo barriers used as bars this year (especially at Workers Charter) and servers and managers will no doubt have seen the serious lack of health and safety and poor quality of the rest areas and toilet rolls and other comfort provisions this time - all because of the new site crew not knowing how to do the job, and there being no one there who could/would tell them.

There is a theory going round that the Beer Company is going to move more and more towards paid servers, and away from volunteers, because paid servers can be made to do 8/10 hour shifts whereas volunteers would not want to - this is just a rumour though, and I don't know if it is true.
 
Surely someone can just start NWBC and pull the plug on them by offering festivals what the WBC did.
 
tribal_princess said:
FUCK this kinda charity tbh.
Click to expand...

Well fuck the kind of charity that strays so far and so deliberately from its proper intntions/origins anyway. WBC have been moving in this kind of direction for far too long already though :mad:

Sunray's idea makes sense and I'd support it, but I'm not optimistic about how easy it would be to achieve that in practice.

Surely TU members who've worked the bars this year and have big issues/objections, should be lobbying/protesting not just to WBC (lost cause there?) but to the TUs who are WBC's ultimate paymasters as well. I'm not involved in TU politics any more but there must be some channels that would take more notice than others ...

Also, I hope Michael Eavis and other Glastonbury bigwigs are having representations made to them ...
 
Bloody hell! I used to work for WBC at Glastonbury and various other gigs, and always had a great time. This was around 97-2001 though. One of my mates was a WBC bar manager for years, and I know a few of the old hands. I can't believe they got rid of the miners, thats terrible! I did hear from a few old hands that this year was shit and a lot of them aren't going back, which will be a real loss to the festival.
 
Chairman Meow said:
Bloody hell! I used to work for WBC at Glastonbury and various other gigs, and always had a great time. This was around 97-2001 though. One of my mates was a WBC bar manager for years, and I know a few of the old hands. I can't believe they got rid of the miners, thats terrible! I did hear from a few old hands that this year was shit and a lot of them aren't going back, which will be a real loss to the festival.
Click to expand...

I have been a Volunteer for the past twenty years in various WBC Teams and its true I did not spot any of the old gang from Whitwell Miners { Worksop, Notts } at Glasto although before making any major comment I want to double check with some of the WBC inner Council as I am going to Latitude tomorrow morning.

As I am a Organiser there was a few letters apologising over Glasto from the WBC but some of the servers may have not seen these letters.

This was the first time my Team was expected to work in the Village Bar at the same time as the Guest Tent on one of the days and on the next day we had two shifts in the Village Bar and one overlapping shift in the Guest Tent so not even Superman could have made all three shifts - lucky enough I did get it sorted out but clearly they did not double check the allocation sheets beforehand.

Most of the WBC Office staff have left so they are now using the BWTUC office { actual its the old GMB office but its in the same building } so the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

I have seen many changes over the years but I will be sticking with it .

all the best Brian
 
William of Walworth said:
Cheers for that Brian. How likely is it do you think that these issues can get sorted ahead of next year?
Click to expand...

To William of Walworth - Well I spoke to some of the key people and its clear that ' Policy ' has changed and it may be that Clause IV and Whitwell Miners will not see a Solution this year.

There is big unrest within ' some ' of the people with power so its not all Black and White and many are baffled as to the split { or the real reasons behind it } so they have called a Urgent meeting which will take place before Reading.

As for the Server Groups they pass around rumours which are only 20 % accurate { some well of the beam } although the Senior Manager's I spoke to do appear to be concerned.

A good point that was raised this morning while we were waiting to direct in the coaches was that the WBC is not a handful of the Inner Council but every member of the WBC all 8,500 { this guy had worked in the WBC office for the past 5/6 years so I presume that figure is accurate }

What was a big surprise was just before Christmas last year there was a serious look at folding down the WBC completely which I am sure none of us want.

Clearly every year the Licence fee goes up and overheads are high so its a fine line between making a profit and a loss. { Although if you take the Festival's in isolation i do believe they made a small profit but its claimed Overheads were far higher than previous years }

This year more than any year at Latitude it was easy to compare Facilities between the WBC Campsite and Stewards - Security etc etc { as the campsite were linked together - we were next to the security dog compound but no brave joker tried to climb over the fence } and with out a doubt the
WBC Campsite had better facilities although the people they were using keeping the toilets clean at Glastonbury were not to be seen.

But if you compare this year and last year at Latitude facilities were not as good as last year. { although I suspect many people did not notice either way }

The issue about the WBC Drinks Vouchers was discussed as they could only be used in the Village Bar unless a Team was working the late shift { ending at 3 am in most bars } and it was decided that Drinks Vouchers could be used in any bar at any time although no one to my knowledge past it on to the staff - I was working in the Village Bar so if the info had been spread out I would not be aware but I did run into many people who were upset they could not use them apart from the Village bar so at least a Notice should have been put up - I only learned about this at 8 am this morning so i would imagine that most staff did not know the rule had been changed { although that was only for Latitude }.

There is talk of a strike at Reading/Leeds but this is talked about every four/five years and none of the more established organiser even gave it a second thought - the strike was not about the direction the WBC is going but some petty arguments over one group getting a far higher allocation than another Group at Glastonbury - its all schoolboy stuff.

By the way I did run into some of the new set up crew and they were very chummy with the WBC Chairman - a stranger would have assumed they had been pals for years. One of them for God knows what reason was trying to find out how long I had been a Volunteer for but I was not playing - he may have been after a free bevy but seeing we have to pay I extracted cash from his pocket and he was not well pleased - they showed up later with a bunch of Glastonbury Hospitality vouchers which is a bit of a joke as no staff could use their Glastonbury Drinks Vouchers but after some heated debate the Chairman passed the word about that only Glastonbury Hospitality vouchers
could be accepted - its minor things like that that do get up my nose as some staff may not have had time to use them at Glasto.

Must sleep just got in the door after a very wet Latitude - all the best brian

ps thanks to Nikolai and Tort for your greetings - it was Paul { of Glastoearth } who sent me this link so thanks to him as well.
 
Re - other points

I have to admit I am a bit weary of this post

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=9351956#post9351956

it stated ' They also ejected quite a few staff and chucked them off site for rounding down the cost of drinks when they had no change. There were several disgruntled bar people in Glastonbury town centre on Saturday night with nowhere to stay and no means of getting home. '

Now for a kick off the bar code system would not show up if a Server was rounding down because all the money goes into buckets so its not a specific cash register for each specific server.

' moose ' does not quote where he heard this story from and to me it is a story.

I have been present when staff have been discovered stealing and the WBC does have to get independent verification that a fiddle is in place - in fact I have been asked to do this on rare occasions.

I am not witting about rounding down though lack of change { which no one would ever get sacked for } but actual stealing - in fact stealing that is easy to spot - pushing a £ 20 note in a pocket or in their sock { no kidding Servers do do this }

When a Deputy Tent Manager suspects theft is taking place the WBC will move a few staff at the front of the bar in plain clothes and they have to witness two times that money is stolen and then WBC Security and a Senior Council member will get involved.

The Server { or it could be a Manager } is searched and they may decide to search their tent as there could be a stash of cash in that as well.

They will then hold a Council meeting where the thief can explain themselves - they may owe rent for example which will be taken into consideration .

Its very rare that anyone is ejected from the event although their WBC Pass will be taken from them and they will be escorted to take their tent down and they will be asked to move to ticket holder camping.

I do know that a Council meeting did take place because I spotted the Chair of the BWTUC Political Committee { the BWTUC owns the WBC } show up and he is normally in charge of the meeting when a theft has been discovered.

I have known this guy for twenty years and there is no way he would agree to sack staff just for rounded down - at most they would get a official warning and be closely watched for the rest of the event.

The next time I see him i will have a quiet word with him although I suspect there is more to this story than ' moose ' and he appears to imply there was several staff all caught at the same time.

------------- Re the hand scanners ------------

I was involved in the trial which took place over one year ago at Hyde Park with the WBC and it was clear it had serious problems .

The scanner can only register the bar code if its dragged over the bar code at a certain speed - drag it too fast or too slow and it will not register.

The Bar codes in a large bar are very small so there was time wasted trying to work out which one to use. Every experienced Server hated them as we calculate the total in our head but I will accept for inexperienced servers it can be very helpful.

You can see what it looks like at

http://www.q-systems.com/qs/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_32&products_id=117

although the claim ' Q-Bar?s unique personal hand units allow staff to register any drink, anywhere. Operators enjoy reduced serving times by up to 40%. ' is a load of rubbish if they compare it against a experienced server doing it the old fashioned way.

Make no mistake about this its more to work out which servers make the most money although I do know that servers have been swapping scanners as they thought their units was faulty

Note the Minimal staff training (approx 15 mins) which I bet was skipped for loads of staff.

In a fixed bar I can see the benefits but in a portable bar it does take staff time to work out where the bar codes are and get used to the speed it has to be scanned { lucky enough I have not needed to use them this year - see below }

One thing that has been bubbling under is that at some point in the future all staff will be scanned as they enter or leave the bar and they may extend this to toilet and fag breaks as well - at that point I will be resigning as I would not accept those conditions with Paid employment and I will not accept it as a Volunteer.

I enjoy being a Volunteer I have never accepted promotion to Manager { Managers are paid per hour } but if someone sits on my back then they can get stuffed.

The WBC office manager has been very good to me this year due to me having side effects from the treatment of Prostate cancer which means I can only work in the WBC Village bar as the side effects can cause me to overheat { hence the need to be near a shower } - lucky enough they did not occur when I was on duty at Glastonbury or Latitude but you know sods law if I was in a normal bar it was bound to happen.

They could have turned around and asked me to step down until the side effects are no longer a problem { sadly every Patient is different so there is no set rules how long they will last for }

I feel fit and well but these side effects may last until 2010 although it does look the drug/hormone/radiotherapy has cleared up the cancer although my Consultant will not give me the green light until I pass four tests spread out over the next twelve months.The NHS treatment has been fantastic although I will admit its a long old slog as it was first discovered February 2008 so I have lost count how many tests I have had since then.

My Team has been given our full allocation for Reading but depending how many they require for the Village Bar I may have to split the Team in two - lucky enough some on my team have been with the WBC for the past fifteen years so they will be able to cope with a split Team.

Brian
 
People were booted off site at Glastonbury for giving out free drinks, there was no "council meeting" or trial - the word of the security guard was simply believed, which in the case I know about is fair enough as the server admitted it. Not that I'm opposed to doing that (punishing theft). The new site crew were certainly given wads of drinks vouchers, and as you say Brian it included the right to use their old Glasto hospitality vouchers...

Just a point on WBC being all 8,500 people - this is nonsense, it is BWTUC and the management committee that wholly own and control WBC, the only power a manager or server has is to withdraw their labour. It maybe the person who you were talking to's honest belief that the company is all these people, that is quite simply not the case in practice or on paper.

I'm pretty close to the "inner circle" and can promise things will be getting harder for servers and managers, at Latitude they trialed delberately understaffing a busy bar (Dreamtime), and it certainly worked from a management committee point of view (managers and servers not taking all their breaks) so you can expect to see that being rolled out at Reading and Leeds, especially given even larger numbers of managers dropping out before then.
 
I spoke to someone at Glade who said they were chucked off site at Glastonbury because they were caught undercharging someone 80p.
 
WBC-WORKER said:
I have to admit I am a bit weary of this post

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=9351956#post9351956

it stated ' They also ejected quite a few staff and chucked them off site for rounding down the cost of drinks when they had no change. There were several disgruntled bar people in Glastonbury town centre on Saturday night with nowhere to stay and no means of getting home. '

Now for a kick off the bar code system would not show up if a Server was rounding down because all the money goes into buckets so its not a specific cash register for each specific server.

' moose ' does not quote where he heard this story from and to me it is a story.

I have been present when staff have been discovered stealing and the WBC does have to get independent verification that a fiddle is in place - in fact I have been asked to do this on rare occasions.

I am not witting about rounding down though lack of change { which no one would ever get sacked for } but actual stealing - in fact stealing that is easy to spot - pushing a £ 20 note in a pocket or in their sock { no kidding Servers do do this }

When a Deputy Tent Manager suspects theft is taking place the WBC will move a few staff at the front of the bar in plain clothes and they have to witness two times that money is stolen and then WBC Security and a Senior Council member will get involved.

The Server { or it could be a Manager } is searched and they may decide to search their tent as there could be a stash of cash in that as well.

They will then hold a Council meeting where the thief can explain themselves - they may owe rent for example which will be taken into consideration .

Its very rare that anyone is ejected from the event although their WBC Pass will be taken from them and they will be escorted to take their tent down and they will be asked to move to ticket holder camping.

I do know that a Council meeting did take place because I spotted the Chair of the BWTUC Political Committee { the BWTUC owns the WBC } show up and he is normally in charge of the meeting when a theft has been discovered.

I have known this guy for twenty years and there is no way he would agree to sack staff just for rounded down - at most they would get a official warning and be closely watched for the rest of the event.

The next time I see him i will have a quiet word with him although I suspect there is more to this story than ' moose ' and he appears to imply there was several staff all caught at the same time.
Click to expand...

I was in Glastonbury town centre on the Friday and Saturday nights, sitting on the monument at the end of High Street, enjoying the music coming from Backpackers and the other pub on the opposite corner. It was really busy with people who had been working at/attending the festival, and we got chatting to a number of people on the Saturday night who claimed to have been thrown off site for rounding down or giving drinks free. A couple of these were two youngish girls, who had found their way to Glastonbury, but had no where to stay, and no transport. As it was after midnight, we smuggled them into the laundry room of the campsite where we were staying to sleep. On the Friday we met two young lads who had had to phone a relative to come and collect them, as they also had nowhere to go.

Obviously it's entirely up to you whether you believe this 'story' or not, however I heard it from at least 5 people who claimed to have been affected over the course of the weekend, in 3 unrelated conversations. A number of people on this forum and others have also commented that working for WBC was a different kind of experience this year.

I should point out that I have absolutely no axe to grind with the WBC, having appreciated their services for many years. However I was somewhat dismayed to find young people apparently stranded when they had expected to be spending the weekend at the festival.

Edit: Just noticed other people telling a similar 'story' above.
 
Sounds like WBC is turning completely to shit which is such a shame. Very worrying to hear about a TU organisation thinking of clocking volunteers in and out of breaks and toilet trips.

PCS been trying to get rid of this sort of practice in the civil service so would be dismayed to hear that's how members could be treated when volunteering to raise money for their union. :rolleyes: :(

Think I'll stick to being a paying punter or volunteer for oxfam.
 
moose said:
I was in Glastonbury town centre on the Friday and Saturday nights, sitting on the monument at the end of High Street, enjoying the music coming from Backpackers and the other pub on the opposite corner. It was really busy with people who had been working at/attending the festival, and we got chatting to a number of people on the Saturday night who claimed to have been thrown off site for rounding down or giving drinks free. A couple of these were two youngish girls, who had found their way to Glastonbury, but had no where to stay, and no transport. As it was after midnight, we smuggled them into the laundry room of the campsite where we were staying to sleep. On the Friday we met two young lads who had had to phone a relative to come and collect them, as they also had nowhere to go.

Obviously it's entirely up to you whether you believe this 'story' or not, however I heard it from at least 5 people who claimed to have been affected over the course of the weekend, in 3 unrelated conversations. A number of people on this forum and others have also commented that working for WBC was a different kind of experience this year.

I should point out that I have absolutely no axe to grind with the WBC, having appreciated their services for many years. However I was somewhat dismayed to find young people apparently stranded when they had expected to be spending the weekend at the festival.

Edit: Just noticed other people telling a similar 'story' above.
Click to expand...

In your first post you made no mention of servers giving away free drinks and that is the reason why I question it at the time.

There is a big difference between rounding down though lack of change and giving drinks away free.

The WBC would look at it in two different ways as one is forced on a server due to lack of change the other is out and out stealing.

There has been occasions when the cash staff will be reluctant to open up sealed cash bags and Customers are asked to produce the correct change which is not easy when pints are £ 3.80 or whatever.

There has been occasions that several members of a Team will be caught stealing money or handing out free drinks and in my experience I have seen them hold a council meeting before deciding their fate . { it is true that members of that team who may not have been to Glastonbury may end up being barred as well }

If you look at the other people they may not be writing about the same people { or the same incident } for example Thora - I spoke to someone at Glade who said they were chucked off site at Glastonbury because they were caught undercharging someone 80p .

if the person was ejected from the site how did they manage to get back into the Glade area of Glastonbury festival ?

Rod Sleeves mentioned a server who was caught giving out free drinks and the server admitted it which may have been the reason why no Council meeting was held.

Normally anyone who has been barred for working for the WBC the word spreads like wildfire between organisers but I did not hear anything at Glasto or Latitude.

There is a lot of changes that have been introduced this year and I am sure there will be more in the pipeline but every year there is changes.

I will bring the question about undercharging due to lack of change at the next WBC Organisers meeting just so that it can be officially clarified.

Normally the line Manager will take responsibility if servers are forced to round down hence why I cant work out how someone was ejected for doing so - it is possible they did not ask permission but without all the full details its impossible to get to the bottom of this .

Brian
 
WBC-WORKER said:
There is a lot of changes that have been introduced this year and I am sure there will be more in the pipeline but every year there is changes.
.

Brian
Click to expand...

Yep, there'll be more changes alright, currently they are geared around squeezing every last drop of work possible out of the minimum number of staff possible.

It's all about the bottom line.
 
WBC-WORKER said:
If you look at the other people they may not be writing about the same people { or the same incident } for example Thora - I spoke to someone at Glade who said they were chucked off site at Glastonbury because they were caught undercharging someone 80p .

if the person was ejected from the site how did they manage to get back into the Glade area of Glastonbury festival ?
Click to expand...

it may have no bearing on this but glasto security is still blaggable it just requires more imagination and knowledge of the current security setup to achieve.
 
Boycey said:
it may have no bearing on this but glasto security is still blaggable it just requires more imagination and knowledge of the current security setup to achieve.
Click to expand...

Doesn't look like it, because like Thora said, she was speaking to someone at the Glade Fest and not someone who'd found their way back into the Glade area at Glastonbury.

All this generally, even with WBC's clarifying details, is really depressing .... that idea of scanning people to check up on staff fag breaks!!!! :hmm: is something that ANY TU linked organisation should be thoroughly ashamed of even contemplating ..... :mad:
 
William of Walworth said:
Doesn't look like it, because like Thora said, she was speaking to someone at the Glade Fest and not someone who'd found their way back into the Glade area at Glastonbury.

All this generally, even with WBC's clarifying details, is really depressing .... that idea of scanning people to check up on staff fag breaks!!!! :hmm: is something that ANY TU linked organisation should be thoroughly ashamed of even contemplating ..... :mad:
Click to expand...

It seems bizarre that WBC are treating their workers like this, when the company I worked for on the bars at Glade treated their volunteers so well. Two shifts, well-staffed (if not over-staffed) bars, no hassle about going on toilet/fag breaks etc.
 
I have no real idea what the workers beer company is?

I presumed it was an organisation that sold decent beer at decent prices, by well looked after staff (under the impression they had something to do with unions) giving folks a cheap get in to an expensive glastonbury

Seems not
 
They've moved some way away from their originally very soundly based TU roots, that seems certain.

Others will be able to explain in more detail ...
 
christonabike said:
I have no real idea what the workers beer company is?

I presumed it was an organisation that sold decent beer at decent prices, by well looked after staff (under the impression they had something to do with unions) giving folks a cheap get in to an expensive glastonbury

Seems not
Click to expand...

It started out connected to the TUC and then accepted Labour Groups and Trade Unions.

Over time this was expanded to Good Causes and Charities such as Amnesty International and Oxfam Campaigns

a full list can be seen at

http://www.workersbeer.co.uk/organisations.aspx

Every organisation has to be approved and then they can set up their own Teams.

Years ago it used to be one Team Leader and eleven volunteers but this has been reduced to one Team Leader and five volunteers.

All their earnings is paid direct to the Organisation they represent and in return they have free entry and good camping facilities.

Its not clear exactly what happened but I know loads of Organisers who's main complaint was the standard of the breakfast at Glastonbury so they did not report anything apart from the usual run of the mill problems { having to work to 4 am etc etc }

If I get a opportunity I will be bringing these matters up at Reading where my Team will be working because if they have shifted their rounding down policy { where there is no change available } then this is a serious matter as they should have notified Organisers at the start of the year - clearly if someone is slipping free drinks to friends then they don't have any defence but undercharging someone a few pence is common practice otherwise it would be chaos with loads of served Customers blocking the path from Customers who wish to place a order.

The WBC has been involved a long time in running bars and they know fine well there has to be sufficient change otherwise the system breaks down.

Brian
 
WBC-WORKER said:
In your first post you made no mention of servers giving away free drinks and that is the reason why I question it at the time.

There is a big difference between rounding down though lack of change and giving drinks away free.

The WBC would look at it in two different ways as one is forced on a server due to lack of change the other is out and out stealing.
Click to expand...

I understood it to be 'giving away drinks because there was no change whatsoever', rather than stealing. However, regardless of the circumstances, I consider it a pretty harsh punishment, and somewhat irresponsible, to chuck a young person off a rural site with no means of getting anywhere or staying anywhere for the night.
 
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