As you may remember, the Vodafone protest on the 30th October went well except for the security guard who was incredibly rude and unprofessional to myself and a colleague. When we emailed the Arndale centre, the General Manager gave us a prompt reply saying he would investigate the matter. Four weeks, one reminder email and one vaguely threatening one, we have received a reply:
“Dear Sarah
Thank you for your reminder note last evening. I apologise for taking a while to return to you but as this related to the conduct of an employee you will understand that we wished to undertake a full and proper detailed investigation into this matter.
The protest were, as you will appreciate, a very unusual occurrence for us and there are certainly aspects of how we managed it that we could have done better. These are being addressed and we will communicate lessons learned to all our members of staff. I appreciate the feedback which you have given in this regard.
We have spoken to the member of staff concerned and now consider the matter closed. However, I note from your further comments re a proposed blog entry, particularly the reference to a photo. She is ordinarily a hard-working and conscientious persons and I am sure you would not want her to be distressed by publication this way. I hope that you will reconsider your proposal.
Finally, may I thank you for making me aware of your democratic protest this weekend.
Yours sincerely
Glen Barkworth
General Manager”
This is obviously not much of a reply, but as over 300 people have now read about this incident since it was published, I think the point has been made.
The demonstration originally happened to protest against the disparity between cutting public services at the same time as allowing international corporations to evade their tax responsibilities to the tune of billions. It was very successful, and there is now a follow-up day of action if you would like to attend.