Call for junior lawyers to strike
Comrades,
Over the past three months, the JLU has sought to raise the awareness of the plight of junior lawyers and create a sense of solidarity among them with a view to their empowerment and a remedying of the power imbalance that exists in law firms.
This has been all talk. The time for ACTION has arrived.
The JLU is therefore calling for a day of mass protest on Friday 25 August 2006. COMRADES, WE'RE GOING ON STRIKE!
Since the JLU recognises that lawyers are a conservative, timid bunch, however, our strike will take the following form: on Friday 25 August 2006, every junior lawyer is to take his or her full lunch break! Imagine it: no junior lawyers working through lunch!
On this day, there is to be no "I just want to finish something off" or "I'm really under the pump". On this day, the JLU urges all junior lawyers to take their full contractual entitlement to an hour away from the office.
Email it to your Blackberry. Slap a post-it note on your forehead. Save it in your Outlook as "Must Attend".
Perhaps even take the opportunity to reacquaint yourself with some of your old articles buddies over lunch. After all, one of the key ways in which law firms ensure the submission of junior lawyers to the system is by quietly discouraging them from taking lunch - from socialising - where subversive, treacherous discussion may take place and lawyers may find that there are others just like them: oppressed, disheartened, discouraged.
Comrades, we must walk before we can run. But that doesn't mean the JLU doesn't have lofty goals. Today - a lunch break; tomorrow - leaving the office at the end of official office hours; next week - a recognition of outside commitments.
Tell your friends, tell your colleagues, even tell your responsible partner (from a safe distance). But most importantly, on Friday 25 August 2006, tell the staff at your favourite lunch place that you'll be having that focaccia to eat in!
Over the past three months, the JLU has sought to raise the awareness of the plight of junior lawyers and create a sense of solidarity among them with a view to their empowerment and a remedying of the power imbalance that exists in law firms.
This has been all talk. The time for ACTION has arrived.
The JLU is therefore calling for a day of mass protest on Friday 25 August 2006. COMRADES, WE'RE GOING ON STRIKE!
Since the JLU recognises that lawyers are a conservative, timid bunch, however, our strike will take the following form: on Friday 25 August 2006, every junior lawyer is to take his or her full lunch break! Imagine it: no junior lawyers working through lunch!
On this day, there is to be no "I just want to finish something off" or "I'm really under the pump". On this day, the JLU urges all junior lawyers to take their full contractual entitlement to an hour away from the office.
Email it to your Blackberry. Slap a post-it note on your forehead. Save it in your Outlook as "Must Attend".
Perhaps even take the opportunity to reacquaint yourself with some of your old articles buddies over lunch. After all, one of the key ways in which law firms ensure the submission of junior lawyers to the system is by quietly discouraging them from taking lunch - from socialising - where subversive, treacherous discussion may take place and lawyers may find that there are others just like them: oppressed, disheartened, discouraged.
Comrades, we must walk before we can run. But that doesn't mean the JLU doesn't have lofty goals. Today - a lunch break; tomorrow - leaving the office at the end of official office hours; next week - a recognition of outside commitments.
Tell your friends, tell your colleagues, even tell your responsible partner (from a safe distance). But most importantly, on Friday 25 August 2006, tell the staff at your favourite lunch place that you'll be having that focaccia to eat in!
posted by Shop Steward | 1:59 pm
1 Comments:
You go for it!! This week a lunch break, next week working allocated hours, next month actually putting in for holidays at Christmas/NY.
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