Cautiously pessimistic

A very quick round-up of a few upcoming events:

On Saturday 20th, Shropshire NEU are organising a protest in support of John Boken, a local union rep who’s been unfairly sacked by bullying management. Also happening that evening, the IWW’s TEFL Workers Union are hosting a showing of the film Pride, including a Q&A with a member of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, as a fundraiser for an upcoming employment tribunal. You can donate directly to the tribunal costs here.

UCU members at Goldsmiths University will be striking from November 23rd-December 13th in a local dispute over redundancies, as the jobs of 20 academic and 32 non-academic staff are threatened.

On Thursday 25th, London housing campaigners will be protesting at the UK Housing Awards, where social housing bosses will be slapping each other on the back. As the Social Housing Action Campaign put it, “Help us challenge the housing association executives wallowing in excess, whilst leaving tenants to wallow in debt, disrepair, and housing stress through the conditions they create.”

Friday 26th will see strikes and protests against Amazon in a number of countries around the world, apparently including the UK, although there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of details confirmed yet. That day will also see another protest by cleaners’ union CAIWU in their ongoing dispute over workloads and victimisation at Facebook.

A press release from CAIWU reads:

“Facebook’s London cleaners are to step up their campaign against excessive workloads and to be brought in house with a major protest on Friday November 26th.

The protest, labelled ‘Cancel Facebook’, is scheduled for 4pm at 10 Brock Street, NW1 3FG. The event will feature samba music, street performers, and a variety of speakers including former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell, ADCU General Secretary James Farrar, and Glenroy Watson of the RMTs Black Solidarity Committee’s Secretary.

The cleaners have been campaigning since June about increased workloads which are making them exhausted and ill. Their employer, Churchill Cleaning, which took over the Facebook contract in January, has added eight extra floors to the six that used to make up the cleaners’ schedule. Churchill has failed to provide any extra resources to meet the increased workload.

Facebook itself has consistently refused to intervene on behalf of its cleaners. The Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union, has approached the company on multiple occasions, but it has consistently refused to get involved beyond vague expressions of concern about the wellbeing of its service providers and its intent to foster a respectful and safe working environment. Beyond that, it simply repeats the mantra that these are matters for Churchill and for its facilities management contractor JLL. Despite repeated enquiries from CAIWU, Facebook has declined to comment on the cleaners’ request to be brought in house.

In the absence of any positive progress, the prospect of industrial action grows increasingly likely. CAIWU has already served Churchill with notice of its members’ intention to vote about the possibility of strike action, and Christmas Eve has been identified as a probable date for the first of what is likely to be a series of one-day strikes. CAIWU organiser Bruce Coker says that striking is very much a last resort, but that the cleaners feel they’ve been left with no other choice. ‘The campaign has been going on for months now,’ said Coker. ‘Our members are getting ill from overwork, but Churchill refuses to acknowledge that there’s a problem. The cleaners have reached the point where going on strike seems like the only way to make Churchill, JLL and Facebook listen.’ Asked the reason behind the ‘Cancel Facebook’ label for the protest, Coker explained, ‘As a society we are becoming very quick to judge and cancel individuals for minor misdemeanours, and platforms like Facebook actively encourage this behaviour by rewarding outrage and engagement. We want to make some noise about the actual harm these companies are causing, not just to members of the public but often to their own workers.’

One former cleaner who won’t be taking part in any strike is Guillermo Camacho, the supervisor dismissed last month for allegedly poor performance of his duties. Both CAIWU and Camacho, whose reinstatement case was rejected by the employment tribunal last week, continue to insist that the real reason behind his dismissal was his trade union activities, of which he made no secret. Camacho’s unfair dismissal case is scheduled to be heard by the tribunal in the new year, by when his former colleagues are hoping their campaign will have resulted in a return to tolerable workloads at Brock Street.

Protest: Friday November 26th, 4pm | 10 Brock Street, London NW1 3FG”

You can also donate to their strike fund here.

Friday 26th will also see the start of strike action by RMT members working on the night tube, in a dispute over staffing levels and working arrangements.

On Saturday 27th, London Renters Union are hosting a discussion and social for renters in Tower Hamlets.

UCU members at 58 universities are due to strike from December 1st-3rd over two separate disputes involving pensions and pay.

Further ahead into December, the 3rd will see the start of a new round of strike action on East Midlands Railways, security guards organised through the UVW union at Great Ormond Street are due to start striking against outsourcing and for full NHS contracts from the 6th onwards, and the “Colston 4” alleged statue-topplers are due to face trial in Bristol from the 13th.

A few other miscellaneous notes:

Sheffield Justeat riders working through Stuart Delivery are entering into dispute over a pay cut, and are raising money for a strike fund here. Their union, the IWGB, is also launching a new supporters’ network, the “solidarity squad.”

Workers organised through the UVW at Sage Nursing Home have won the London Living Wage after a campaign involving strike action.

Finally, Bristol Kill the Bill defendant Ryan Roberts was recently found guilty on charges of riot and arson. You can read a statement on the verdict here, and write to him at:

Ryan Roberts A5155EM, HMP Bristol, 19 Cambridge Rd, Bristol BS7 8PS