London board game cafe workers to strike throughout October

Workers at two Draughts locations in London have announced a sustained strike action as part of a continued fight for improved and respectful working conditions, and appeal of zero-hour contracts. Servers and bar staff at both the Stratford and Waterloo board game cafés will carry out labor strikes on every Saturday of October beginning with the 4th, according to a press release from trade union United Voices of the World.

The strike action is characterized as an escalation of the workers’ dispute with Draughts ownership over several issues, including an end to zero-hour contracts infamous in the UK for giving employers inordinate influence over hourly schedules. Staff want fixed-hour contracts for all workers, along with fair and properly forecasted rotas (UK term for duty or job roster), paid on-site training for all positions, licensed security on-hand during busy evening shifts, and tossing out Draughts’ current QR code ordering system. UVW states that the last point “cuts tips and undermines staff skills.”

“We are trying to let them know that we are not going to just roll over or quiet-quit, like a lot of people have suggested,” said Brune, a Draughts bar worker and UVW member. “We are not going to simply accept that because this is a hospitality job we don’t deserve to be able to plan our lives, to be able to rely on the money that we can project when we see the rota that we have, and simply that we can expect to be treated like normal human beings.”

This strike action makes good on a threat workers first lobbed at management following the July firing of kitchen worker and UVW members Awed Nur without cause. Staff alleged retaliation for issuing strike ballots among workers and called the firing “clear trade union victimization.” They had previously marched a letter of demands to Draughts ownership’s office but were met with locked doors. Management allegedly conducted captive audience meetings and ignored all communications for weeks after.

"This fight is bigger than one bar: it’s part of a growing movement of hospitality workers who refuse to accept poverty wages and precarity."

Later that month on July 14, unionized Draughts workers held a rally outside the Waterloo location to celebrate a unanimous strike vote. Despite a brief but ultimately uneventful visit from Metropolitan Police, the rally sought public support and demonstrations of unity from those attending. In an apt metaphor for the relationship between workers and Draughts management, street art created during the event that depicted the phrase “We’re not playing anymore!” was almost immediately painted over white.

“If management keeps dodging negotiations, our members will only escalate,” said Petros Elia, UVW’s general secretary. “This fight is bigger than one bar: it’s part of a growing movement of hospitality workers who refuse to accept poverty wages and precarity. UVW will back them all the way until they win.”

Draughts staff have threatened to escalate beyond the October strike action, alleging that management has rescheduled renovation work to overlap with planned strikes — kneecapping the effectiveness of any labor stoppage. The UVW trade union covers several segments of the hospitality industry, which, alongside Draughts and other board game cafés, includes carers, cleaners, and other jobs predominantly represented by immigrant labor trapped in precarious and low-pay structures.

Draughts joins a growing trend of board game cafés and tabletop businesses fighting to unionize and create safer, better paid workplaces. Rascal has extensively covered the plight of Tabletop Workers United, who recently ratified their union contract.  Card Kingdom Union, TCGUnion-CWA, and United Paizo Workers represent some of the bigger names among tabletop’s union-represented workforce, respectively covering warehouse workers, trading card authenticators, and the folks who design and produce tabletop RPGs such as Pathfinder and Starfinder.