Various lucky representatives from the 3 Cosas campaign spent the weekend before last in Somerset, tirelessly promoting the cause and perhaps also having the odd half of cider. They spoke at various events in the Left Field, participating in discussion about protest and dissent on campus, and got a good write up for it in the Guardian here.

They also raised money for the campaign, and, as you can see, enlisted a few high profile supporters.

Thanks to everyone who came to our emergency meeting today – we had members there from ULIA, SAS, IALS, Finance, ULU, maintenance, and the porters, so an excellent mix from across the branch.

Anyway, the meeting unanimously approved expenditure on the deposit and rent required for our planned new office. It’s a shame to move from ULU, where the students had so kindly allowed us our space for free, but at the same time the planned new space (just ten minutes away in Fitzrovia) will be much larger and more suitable in lots of ways for the work of the branch as it continues to expand.

Once everything is confirmed, we’ll send details round and invite people to come and check out it out.

At the meeting we also canvassed opinion as to asking members who could afford it to voluntarily increase their monthly payments. We want to keep membership accessible to everyone at five pounds per month, but as an active branch like ours does incur a lot of costs, it would be great if those who can and would like to pay more were able to. As soon as we have a new form to allow this we’ll make sure to send it round.

The Garden Halls workers feature in the Observer this week, in a great piece by Nick Cohen:

‘The story of the University of London‘s cleaners ought to be a modern Made in Dagenham. Immigrant women were scraping a living on a poverty wage from an employer who wanted them to clean up other people’s mess and get out of sight when they’d finished. They fought back and, in a rare uplifting moment in these dismal times, won. They forced the university to raise their pay from £6.15 to £8.80 an hour and give them decent holidays and sickness leave…’

Read full article here

The next IWGB University of London branch meeting will take place between 1.30 and 3.30 this Friday in room S13, in the Institute of Education.

We’ll be talking about a variety of issues, including the Garden Halls, the SAS Review, and the recent University pay settlement.

Please come along at whatever time you can make it – everyone who comes will get to vote, and anyone can suggest other items for discussion. Just contact catherinemorrissey@iwgb.org.uk with any items to be added to the agenda.

The Garden Halls strike is over for now, and we’d like to say thank you to everyone for your massive support over the last week.

Workers were on strike for 5 days, which means outsourced IWGB workers have been on strike a total of 10 days in the past 8 months.

All previous strike days were compensated at full pay and that’s our intention this time.

That means we only have until the end of June to raise £2000 more.

Our ability to give full strike pay will make a profound difference in whether we will be able to strike again in the future.

If you were able to donate to our strike fund, pass this message to your colleagues, or get your student union or trade union branch to pass a motion giving a donation you would be massively helping workers who could not be in a more vulnerable situation.

Click the button to the right, or alternatively contact our Treasurer, Yvette Bailey, at yvettebailey@iwgb.org.uk

On the fourth day of their five-day strike over the loss of more than 80 jobs at the University of London, cleaners and other workers marched this morning to Senate House to deliver a letter to the Chancellor of the University, Princess Anne.

Along with students and other union members, the workers marched from the picket lines at the Garden Halls of residence near King’s Cross to Senate House, the administrative centre of the University. One of the striking workers delivered a letter to University management and Princess Anne calling them to intervene to resolve the dispute, slipping the letter under the closed front doors of the building.

A contingent of workers then visited the picket lines at Lambeth College, where they were received by members of Unison and the University College Union (UCU), currently on all-out strike to defend the working conditions and benefits of staff.

The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) began its strike on Friday 6 June and will continue until Thursday 12 June. It has warned the University that its summer conference season will face prolonged disruption if the institution and its outsourcing companies Cofely and Aramark, do not sit around the negotiating table.

The University is set to refurbish its halls from the end of June. The process will last around two years and current workers are at risk of redundancy.

Many of workers under threat of redundancy have been the most active in the 3 Cosas Campaignfor Sick Pay, Holidays and Pensions. The campaign recently won improved sick pay and holiday pay after a high-profile strike in November 2013.

The IWGB is demanding:

•           a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies

•           full and meaningful consultation with the IWGB

•           the same wage levels, terms and conditions, and length of service for any workers transferred to contracts outside the UoL

The IWGB is building a strike fund to compensate workers taking strike action and is calling on support and solidarity from other trade unions, students’ unions and the wider labour movement.

END

Independent Workers of Great Britain

11/06/2014

Contact: Jasonmoyer-lee@iwgb.org.uk or 07922810798

Twitter: @3CosasCampaign

Three University of London inter-collegiate halls of residence – the Garden Halls – are to be closed down this summer.  Over 80 employees of the University of London’s subcontractors- Cofely and Armark- are at risk of redundancy.  The University of London’s plans to refurbish the Garden Halls have been known for some time yet little effort has been made to re-allocate workers and prevent redundancies.  Roughly one year ago the IWGB- which represents the majority of the Garden Halls outsourced workers- asked that Cofely transfer Garden Halls workers to arising vacancies throughout the University of London contract in order to minimise redundancies.  It was suggested that temporary employment contracts be issued to people replacing the Garden Halls workers.  This proposal represented a logical and common sense method of reducing potential redundancies.  Cofely refused to oblige, instead saying that all new vacancies would be advertised at the halls so Garden Halls workers could apply.  Only 2 out of potentially over 15 of these vacancies were advertised at the Garden Halls.

Throughout the Garden Halls redundancy procedures, both Aramark and Cofely have refused to consult with the IWGB.  Cofely has even been consulting with UNISON, despite the fact that most of the workers have left UNISON in disgust, have asked Cofely not to deal with them over the redundancies, and the Cleaning Services Manager is the UNISON rep.  As a result of the impending redundancies the IWGB has declared five days of industrial action.  The IWGB has offered, on numerous occasions, to meet with the employers at ACAS and find a negotiated solution to the dispute.  Our offer is also open to the University of London, who would likely foot the bill for any increased redundancy payments.  Our offers for negotiations have been repeatedly rejected.  It is a most unfortunate situation that the University of London, Cofely, and Aramark would rather see five days of industrial action than concede anything more than the absolute and statutory minimum for workers who have served the University of London for years.

IWGB members are continuing their strike today against job losses at the Garden Halls, which sees more than 80 workers facing redundancy.

You can follow the strike on Facebook or on Twitter.

Please come down in person if you can – workers will be striking every day from 7.30am-1pm, and need all the support they can get.

The strike is taking place outside Commonwealth Hall, on Cartwright Gardens – see here for full directions.