At yesterday’s surprise protest at the Royal College of Music, our President, Henry Chango Lopez, came face-to-face with Richard Wistreich, one of the Directors of the College. Faced with his platitudes, Henry made it clear to him that our threat to strike is the result of a lack of communication from RCM – and gave him a lecture on how an educational institution should behave towards its workers! You can watch the exchange on our Facebook pages by follwing the link below:
After our members at the Royal College of Music raised concerns about Tenon FM’s plan to slash cleaners’ hours, we tried to raise the issue with RCM managers.
We’ve been disappointed by the lack of response, and so we’ve issued Tenon FM with notice that we’re balloting for strike action. We expect the ballot to open on 2 November.
If you’ve got any questions about this, please get in touch with Danny.
We’ve sent Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Adrian Smith a petition from UoL and NHS staff calling for colleagues to be brought in-house – it got an amazing 556 signatures in just a few weeks! The text of our letter is below:
Dear Sir Adrian
Please find attached 556 signatures from University of London and NHS staff calling for their outsourced colleagues to be brought in-house.
These were collected in just a couple of weeks – obviously more staff would have signed, but there’s only so much time even we can spend collecting signatures!
There is an overwhelming consensus that we want to be ONE University, and to end this unfair two-tier system.
Once again we call on you to announce that these staff will be brought in-house with immediate effect, and fully consulted over the process by which this happens.
Best wishes
Danny
We’re also going to be outside Senate House every day this week flyering and raising awareness for the campaign with workers’ stories – come and join us between 12-2pm or 4:45-6pm at the Russell Square entrance!
As there are 8 candidates for 5 ICE rep positions in UoLIA, there are going to be elections!
IWGB is standing four candidates, and would urge you to vote for them all to ensure this forum represents a strong voice for staff!
Read our candidates’ full statements: Nic Charlton, Rebecca Dooley, Bill Kelliher, Catherine Morrissey
IWGB has been established at the University since 2012 and now represents well over 100 in-house staff, as well as around 250 outsourced workers – that makes us the biggest union on campus. It’s important for outsourced staff to have a voice here as well as us, and that’s one of the things we want to bring to this forum.
Of course, directly employed staff like you and me are the focus of ICE as well and we think we can help shake things up! We take a different approach to the traditional unions: for instance, with London Weighting we organised a huge staff petition and several public meetings on that a few years ago and had HR really worried! The eventual deal wasn’t perfect, but we don’t think any acceptable offer would have been made at all without the pressure IWGB applied. We’re an alternative voice for staff that can really make a difference.
In addition, you may have seen us around the University lately, supporting and representing outsourced staff in their campaign. In just six months we’ve pushed UoL from saying “outsourcing isn’t our concern” to “we’re conducting a review of outsourcing”! We also do a lot of casework here for staff of all grades, and get great results on individual and institutional levels.
We’re innovative and adaptive: outside UoL we’re defining UK law on the ‘gig economy’. We’re still growing here and elsewhere, and have had a string of wins against employers in the courts. We’re proactive and effective in driving change in everything we do, and could achieve so much more at UoL in a forum like ICE.
The ICE forum will run alongside the University’s other ‘recognition’ meetings, which the two other unions attend. So Unison and UCU will continue to be consulted in this way. We’re asking you to vote for IWGB candidates in the ICE forum, because we think we have a different and equally valid contribution to make.
You don’t have to join our union to benefit from our work in the ICE forum. We promise to listen to you, fight your corner and communicate with you – this is a staff forum, and it’s about giving staff back some real power!
If you have any questions about this, please email Rebecca (rebecca.dooley@london.ac.uk).
We’re finally getting there! The first full meeting of the Information and Consultation Forum has now been scheduled for Monday 27th November 2017 from 2pm – 3.30pm in Montague Room, G26.
Most departments have now confirmed their reps, with the ones we know (HR are running the process in a slightly cagey fashion) as follows:
CoSector: Adam Lucette (IWGB) and Colin Watson (IWGB)
HEE: Joseph Parrott (IWGB)
P & FM: Jelony Nwaneri (IWGB)
School of Advanced Study: Lindsey Caffin (IWGB), Danny Millum (IWGB), Mark Murphy (IWGB), Damien Short (IWGB)
Senate House Library: Jordan Landes (IWGB) and Elizabeth Morcom (IWGB)
You might be noticing a pattern here! We are really pleased to have so many keen members and to be representing these areas – we’ll be adding more contact details BUT for now just drop Danny a line (danny.millum@sas.ac.uk) with any questions.
Semana 16 Octubre: Danny más otros activistas van a pedir a los empleados directos de la universidad que rellenen una petición apoyando la campaña y exigiendole a la universidad que contrate directamente a los trabajadores que ahora están tercerizados.
Semana 23 Octubre: Mesas de información/piquetes fuera de Senate House, con volantes, musica, banderas, musica. Vamos a tener al menos 10 trabajadores, empleados directos, tercerizados, estudiantes y activistas cubriendo dosturnos cada dia – el de la mañana (12:00-14:00) y tarde (16:45-18:30). Yo estare dando los turnos a los reps y activistas esta semana y preparare también volantes (que incluirán testimonios por parte de los trabajadores) esta proxima semana.
23 Octubre 15:30: Reunion con los reps de la campaña en el bar del Insitute of Education.
25 Octubre 17:00: Reunion con estudiantes de UCL que quieren lanzar una campaña para apoyar a los trabajadores externalizados de University of London.
Semana 6 Noviembre: Lanzamos nuevos videos de campaña que incluyen entrevistas con estudiantes y cleaners. Hablare tambien con Novara Media a ver si ellos tambien pueden hacer un video.
Semana 13 Noviembre: Hacemos todas las preparaciones necesarias para la protesta que haremos en Foundation Day.
21 Noviembre: PROTESTA DEL FOUNDATION DAY Y DE LA VISITA DE LA PRINCESA ANNA! Security, recepcionistas, porters y la sala de correos hacen huelga y piquete a partir de las 14:00. A las 18:00 TODOS, – incluidos los cleaners, estudiantes y activistas – Lanzan la protesta principal fuera Senate House. ¡Todos deberiamos traer cacerolas y ollas (y tapones), para hacer un mega cacerolazo recontra ruidoso! Ponganse en contacto conmigo si tienen otras ideas para la protesta.
Mensaje de Danny:
Acabamos de asistir a la reunión de todos los trabajadores de la universidad. Hablaron mucho sobre la revisión que están haciendo de los subcontratos. Van a considerar todo, incluyendo pagos y términos y condiciones. Esto, obviamente, son buenas noticias.
Una de las cosas que van a hacer es contactar a los trabajadores subcontratados –si y cuando los contacten, por favor avísennos- necesitamos asegurarnos de que todos demos el mismo mensaje – IN HOUSE AHORA!
También tengo mi primera reunión con Kim Frost el 3 de noviembre. Obviamente voy a hacer que este sea el tema más importante.
Come support our community picket/information stalls next week at Senate House
Come support University of London outsourced workers next week at our community pickets and information stalls outside Senate House (23-27 October).
Workers will be there to tell their stories, as they hand out flyers that reveal the cruel and discriminatory practices that are common for outsourced workers.
And for the peckish there will coffee and biscuits!
We will be outside Senate house between 12:00 and 14:00 and between 16:45 and 18:00.
Danny writes:
At the University of London All Staff Meeting, the review of outsourced staff was discussed at length. They will be looking at everything including pay and terms and conditions.
This is obviously great news, and the University anticipate a report in December – but there is no reason why they can’t issue a general guarantee before then that all staff will be in-house by a certain date.
This has obviously come about as a consequence of the campaign pressure thus far – so it is vital that at this crucial period we keep up the momentum!
This week we have been asking all directly employed staff to sign a petition asking for their colleagues to be brought in-house – the response so far has been FANTASTIC! We have hundreds of signatures and everyone has been very supportive.
If you have not yet signed, or would like a petition sheet to take around yourself, speak to the guys on Stewart House reception or email Danny (dannymillum@iwgb.org.uk).
Independent Workers Union of Great Britain - Universities of London Branch 