Last night we attended the launch of Leo Zeilig’s new novel, An Ounce of Practice (Hope Road Press) – the novel is set amid an outsourced workers’ campaign, and draws heavily on Leo’s involvement in 3 Cosas.

As well as a kind introduction by Philip Murphy and words from his editor, Leo also gave the floor to Comandante Robinson, who gave a rousing account of the early days of IWGB (expertly translated by Camila) and Danny, who brought the audience up to date on the latest campaign around security guards’ pay differentials.

Congratulations to Leo for a great launch – we look forward to reading it!

You can find out more about the book here: http://www.hoperoadpublishing.com/an-ounce-of-practice

Photos: Philip Murphy

IWGB General Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee has written to Cordant to serve notice that we are now in formal dispute, and to inform them that we will shortly be serving notice of our intention to ballot our security guard members for industrial action.

This follows Cordant’s failure to meet the IWGB’s demand that security officer pay differentials be restored to their 2011 levels.

Ballots have to be sent by post, so it is vitally important that we make sure that we have an up-to-date postal address for all members – please contact Danny (dannymillum@iwgb.org.uk) to confirm your address is the same as the one on our database.

The IWGB is calling on all members to vote YES for strike action! A strong YES vote will show Cordant that we are serious, and that we are prepared to strike if they do not come up with a fair offer!

Mmebers with any questions should email abdul.bakhsh@outlook.com.

If you would like to support the strike, you can do one simple thing to help ensure it’s a success. In previous IWGB stikes, we’ve been able to pay striking workers from our strike fund. Having a strike fund means that members who can’t afford to lose pay will still be able to participate in the strike. Our fund is sadly depleted – which is where you come in! Please donate to the IWGB UoL Security Guards Strike Fund and help our members to win better pay.

Our next branch meeting is taking place this Friday 24 February in the IHR
Mezzanine, 3rd Floor Senate House  at 12.30.

Amongst other things, we will be discussing:

*       Security guards strike update
*       Aramark
*       Asbestos update

English classes have started up again. They will run on Saturday, with a drop-in class that everyone is welcome to attend,, and an ESOL 2 class. Please contact our education officer Andres if you want to find out more: andressaenz@iwgb.co.uk

Las clases de inglés han comenzado de nuevo. Ellos correrán el sábado, con una clase que todos están bienvenidos y una clase ESOL 2. Póngase en contacto con nuestro oficial de educación, Andres, si desea obtener más información: andressaenz@iwgb.co.uk

IWGB met with Cordant representatives on Monday 20 February. As Danny reports:

The IWGB presented three demands to Cordant. It was promised that the first two would be resolved:

1. With regard to payslips, it was agreed that Danny would liaise with John Preston, to ensure all staff were receiving payslips with a full breakdown of hours, overtime hours etc.

2. With regard to zero-hour contracts, it was agreed that Danny would provide to John Preston a list of staff who were on contracts that did not reflect their hours, and that these would then be resolved.

All members currently on zero-hour contracts, or who would like to have a contract which reflects their hours properly should contact Abdul as soon as possible!

The third demand has not yet been met:

3. With regard to pay, the IWGB position was that differentials should be restored to their 2011 levels.

The union has provided a deadline of Friday 24 February at 5pm. If we have not received an offer along these lines, or an invitation to a serious negotiation with Cordant and the University about these issues, we will start the procedures to ballot for a strike.

Matthew Taylor is looking into the gig economy on behalf of the government – and our General Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee has given him some pointers in today’s Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/15/silicon-valley-spin-undermine-workers-rights-gig-economy-employment

BREAKING NEWS! Since this article was published this morning the University of London have been in touch with the IWGB with partial answers to the issues raised. Get in touch (uol@iwgb.org.uk) if you want more details!

IWGB members working in the maintenance team are to launch a formal collective grievance against the University and its contractor Bouygues following a series of failings relating to the re-discovery of asbestos across the University of London site.

The site had been declared asbestos-free following a series of previous scandals, most recently in 2002-3 at the then  Institute of Germanic Studies.

However, it recently transpired that these tests had not been carried out properly, and that areas which had been declared safe were in fact contaminated.

Staff who have been working in those areas are understandably extremely concerned as to the danger they might have been exposed to. However, despite the gravity of the situation, the University has thus far only provided vague and generic assurances that the asbestos is now being cleared, and that the risks were minimal.

Meanwhile:

• The University has refused to confirm that an investigation will be conducted into how areas were declared safe when the asbestos had not been removed
• Staff are still being pressured to go into affected areas without adequate training or protective clothing
• The University has refused to release the detailed sample reports from the most recent surveys
• The University has failed to address a series of detailed questions on this issue submitted by the affected staff in December
• The University has failed to inform other potentially affected staff, visitors, or residents at the its Halls of Residence, of these ongoing asbestos risks

As such the IWGB, who represent maintenance workers at the University, will be submitting a formal grievance this week, and pressing, among other things, for a full formal enquiry.

Please feel free to get in touch with any concerns via uol@iwgb.org.uk.

The IWGB has been given a grant of £10,000 from the London Legal Support Trust (LLST), to help support the activities of our  Legal Department, and as part of the process of becoming an accredited LLST Centre of Excellence. As well as an ongoing independent review of our activities, this will allow us to access more advice and support from the Trust and apply for further funding.

Watch this space for more info!