There are a few hundred outsourced workers at Senate House and other University of London buildings in Bloomsbury, including the intercollegiate student halls. Most of the caterers are employed by Aramark; the cleaners, security guards and maintenance by Balfour Beatty Workplace, the services arm of the construction giant. Most are immigrants; from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and, overwhelmingly in the case of the cleaners, Latin America.
Two years ago the cleaners were being paid £6.15 an hour, and only 18 outsourced workers were members of the trade union, Unison Senate House Branch. A group of activists, working with the branch education representative, began free English classes sponsored by the union, together with a recruitment drive. In July 2011 they started a campaign for the London Living Wage, and in September 2011 held an unofficial strike demanding overdue wages; Balfour Beatty paid out around £6000 within three days. Wages have gone up four times since October 2011; the cleaners are now paid £8.55 an hour.
Union recruitment soared: up to a third of Branch members, including some of its most active organisers, were outsourced workers – unprecendented for a group that is traditionally among the lowest paid, most vulnerable and most difficult to organise. Last September the cleaners launched a new campaign for 3 Cosas: sick pay, pensions and holidays on the same terms as directly employed university staff.
But the Union management and branch leadership have not been helpful, to put it mildly. The then branch chair tried unsuccessfully to block a committee vote to increase funding for the Living Wage campaign. The vice-chair, Simon Meredith, and secretary, Josephine Grahl, wouldn’t hold a vote on giving official support to the 3 Cosas campaign, and tried to co-opt the agenda with a campaign run by Unison management rather than by the cleaners. ‘All our resources were going into fighting our own Union, instead of the campaign,’ an activist told me.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/04/09/harry-stopes/miembros-no-numeros/
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