Mark Tiddy’s Blog & Website - Thoughts of a Christian Youth Worker & Musician

DISCLAIMER: Firstly the publishes SPCK have nothing to do with this formally and are the name is no longer linked to Christian book shops formally, these Christian bookshops are now run by SSG. The actual company SPCK are awesome!

‘Staff Fired As Norwich SPCK Bookshop Closed’

The above words was the headline on the Network Norwich Christian bookshop after staff were fired by owners of the SPCK chain St Stephen The Great Charitable Trust (SSG) (Link).

However this sacking wasn’t because of staff failures or ever because the store was closing down…in fact as I write this the Norwich SPCK remains open unlike many already for sale or for rent across the country. These staff were fired simply because they didn’t sign the new contacts sent by the Brewer brother’s (the Texan duo who run SSG)…the same happened in Sheffield, Canterbury and Leicester. (Some of which stores have now re-opened), staff in Norwich made it onto the local news programme ‘Look East’ and in other areas staff have been in local papers and even in national papers such as The Guardian.

Tribunals are set against SSG by these former staff in the next few months.

The fact is the treatment of staff in this way is completely unacceptable

It’s bad enough when a company like Wal-Mart treats it’s staff in such a manor but when a company claims to have a Christian ethic both behind and within it the situation is not just bad for the staff but promotes a negative image of Christians.

I therefore urge you to BOYCOTT YOUR SSG, if it’s the only shop you have consider using Wesley Owen online, Acorn Direct, Eden.co.uk, Shop Zeto or a variety of other Christian online retailers.

However don’t just boycott your SSG, write to the SSG head quarters (address below) or e-mail them (Using their website) letting them know you find this unacceptable and will be boycotting their shop until they clean up their act.

This is about justice for the fired staff and for the future staff of SSG and the future of our Christian bookshops.

Please leave comments to let me know what you’re feelings and actions are.

For the complete SSG/SPCK Story check Dave Walker’s Blog

SSG Address