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Glasgow venue closes following strike action by staff
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 20 July 2023
Glasgow bar and music venue The 13th Note has permanently closed down following strike action last weekend by staff members.
The strike was in response to a dispute between the venue’s employees and its owner over both wages and health and safety measures. The workers were members of the trade union Unite, which said that last weekend’s industrial action was the first bar workers’ strike in the UK in over 20 years. Further strike action was planned each weekend through to 6 Aug.
Venue owner Jacqueline Fennessy has accused Unite of “sabotaging” her business, stating that while The 13th Note was facing the same post-COVID challenges as all grassroots venues, it was the union-led strike action that resulted in the operation becoming commercially unviable. The union, somewhat unsurprisingly, has hit back at those claims.
Fennessy said in a statement: “It is with deep sadness that today we have been forced to close the doors of The 13th Note and appoint liquidators following operating the venue successfully for 21 years. Over more than two decades, we’ve played host to thousands of bands, performers, promoters and artists, while playing a significant role in the vibrant cultural scene of Glasgow”.
“I’m devastated with the closure of a business I’ve cherished and loved along with the hundreds of loyal customers who frequented the Note”, she went on, “and I would like to thank everyone who has played a role in creating what was a vibrant Glasgow institution. It has been an honour to have been a part of your lives”.
“It has been the involvement of Unite Hospitality that has caused a drastic reduction in revenue that has forced our closure and the loss of all jobs at The 13th Note”, she then added. “To my team, I tried my very best to resolve all the issues we – and other hospitality businesses – face. Thank you all sincerely for all your work and efforts over the years”.
Expanding on her criticism of the union, Fennessy denied the claims that have been made regarding health and safety issues at the venue and insisted that staff were being paid above the living wage.
“Despite direct talks with Unite Hospitality about The 13th Note being in crisis and all jobs being at risk as recently as 5 Jul”, she went on, “they continued publishing untruths and went ahead with strike action which has fully depleted all available funds in the business”.
“Sadly all eighteen team members will be losing their jobs today”, she then confirmed. “Why an organisation designed to protect the welfare of hospitality employees would choose to sabotage its own members’ jobs with full knowledge of the impact their action would have, I will never know”.
Responding on Twitter, Unite Hospitality said: “The owner of The 13th Note has closed the venue with immediate effect informing workers that they would get a week’s wages. This is despite Ms Fennessy committing to pausing any redundancy until we met with ACAS today to resolve. This is trade union intimidation”.
The union subsequently posted a statement from its members who worked at the venue, which said: “To close our workplace without even informing those that would lose their job before she briefed the press is testament to the type of employer that we have had to deal with”.
“We have negotiated strenuously with the owner of The 13th Note for the past eighteen weeks to achieve basic workers’ rights”, it went on, “such as contracts, equal pay and for the health and safety issues to be rectified. In our opinion, this is the bare legal minimum that Jacqueline Fennessy should have been doing in the first place. As a result, we have been left destitute and precarious for simply wanting The Note to be the best vegan and live music venue in Glasgow”.
Disputing various statements made by Fennessy, they continued: “Jacqueline has alleged that the venue has lost money because of us unionising, when the venue has [really] lost money because she has driven it into the ground. We are the people who have put blood, sweat and tears into this venue making the owner millions in personal wealth over the course of the last 20+ years, therefore we know the power of workers at The 13th Note and every hospitality venue”.
“We know how to run this venue”, they then concluded. “Evidently Jacqueline did not. Which is why we will be doing everything in our power, with the support of our union and the wider trade union movement, along with customers past and present and the general public, to take the venue back into workers’ hands”.
