Independent Workers Union of Great Britain – Universities of London Branch

19 June, 2015, London.  Low-paid workers at the prestigious Royal College of Music will protest today at 1 p.m. at the College (Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BS) for improved sick pay, holidays, and pensions.

Like many higher education institutions, the Royal College of Music outsources services such as cleaning.  As outsourcing often entails, the employees of these companies are on far inferior wages, terms, and conditions than their colleagues who work directly for the Royal College of Music.  For example, the cleaners, employed by Ocean Integrated Services, receive no occupational sick pay, are on the statutory minimum amount of holidays and are entitled to only a lousy pension.  “Not having sick pay means that we are obliged to come to work sick- I have had to work with the flu, with a fever, and with other illnesses,” said Cristobal Barzallo Maldonado, a Royal College of Music cleaner.

After years of earning poverty wages outsourced workers at the college decided that enough was enough and they joined the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) in order to campaign for the London Living Wage, a rate of pay considered across the political spectrum to be the minimum necessary to avoid living in poverty.  After starting to agitate in the workplace, and following a threat of a high profile campaign, the Royal College of Music started paying their cleaners the London Living Wage in May, 2015.

However, the London Living Wage is not enough for decent working conditions, so the workers have decided to campaign for better sick pay, holidays, and pensions.  The RCM 3 Cosas Campaign- modelled on the successful University of London 3 Cosas Campaign which was also waged by the IWGB- has just started yet has already attracted support from RCM students and others such as Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett.  Maritza Castillo Calle, Vice-Chair of the IWGB branch the RCM workers belong to, said: “If the RCM doesn’t cave with today’s protest we will keep campaigning until we achieve our objectives.  The fight will continue until victory!”

For more information, see: https://rcm3cosascampign.wordpress.com/

Contact: IWGB President Dr. Jason Moyer-Lee at Jasonmoyer-lee@iwgb.org.uk or at 07771783094.

To follow the latest developments see: Facebook: 3 Cosas Campaign at Royal College of Music;  Twitter: @3CosasRCM

We have received the following email from the National Gallery campaign, full of good news and ways to get involved in their ongoing campaign to get Candy Udwin reinstated after being suspended as a result of her trade union involvement as well as the fight for the Living Wage.

BRILLIANT NEWS

Living Wage to be paid from July!

Candy Udwin won her Interim Relief hearing at Employment Tribunal last week!

Candy is back on the pay roll and the judge ruled it was likely a full hearing would find she had been dismissed for Trade Union activities. This vindicates the stand PCS has taken against her victimisation.

Keep the pressure up to demand the gallery now reinstate Candy

Director Nicholas Penny who received a knighthood last week will hear Candy’s Appeal against dismissal on 02 July.

You can have your say by asking the Director a question now at #AskTheGallery. These will be answered live by the Director on Tuesday 16 July 10:30-11:30 so do tweet your questions before then or on the day.

And you can click to send a Freedom of Information request  to ask the same question Candy was sacked for!

GALLERY STAFF KEEP UP THE PRESSURE

10 DAYS STRIKE ACTION BETWEEN 20 JUNE – 02 JULY

National Gallery staff in PCS have inspired people across Britain and even in other countries by striking for 35 days so far because they are so sure that the gallery’s privatisation plans are wrong. They are not giving up and will strike for 10 more days from 20 June and plan further action in coming months.

Pressure is building as the Gallery have finally been forced to agree to pay the Living Wage. Now PCS have asked the newly appointed Director Gabriele Finaldi who takes office in August to help get the Gallery back to talks with the PCS union.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT THAT HAS ALLOWED US TO GET THIS FAR

PLEASE HELP US KEEP GOING!

STRIKE DATES 20, 22-27, 30 June 01-02 July

• Picket lines 9-11am everyday followed by strikers meetings (5-6.30pm on Friday)
• Speaking tour We will try to meet requests for speakers round the country so do get in touch.
• Saturday 20 June Anti Austerity March Join us in the PCS contingent on the march and at our stall in Parliament Square (where you can buy your tshirts!)
• Saturday 27 June Pride Join us on the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners contingent on the march and afterwards at a Picket Line Party outside the National Gallery
• Collection days Thursday 25 June and Thursday 02 July Please help collect money to support the strikers(Collection sheet attached). Let us know if you would like strikers to help.
• Day of Action Thursday 02 July which is also the date for Candy’s Appeal against dismissal.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

The low paid staff rely on our donations to help keep the campaign and the strikes going. So please do donate whatever you can.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=KYYEWKXCU2Y4Q

Other ways to donate here

The details for this month’s branch meeting are as follows:

Friday 19 June, 12.30pm (room S13, Institute of Education)

Friday 19 June, 3.30pm (IWGB Office, 80 Lamb’s Conduit Street)

Saturday 20 June, 2pm (IWGB Office, 80 Lamb’s Conduit Street)

We will be discussing the following issues:

• Aramark
• Maintenance London Weighting
• Pay dispute
• CAC updates & request for evidence
• English exchange – call for volunteers
• Pride – call for volunteers
• Invitation to RCA fundraising event

Well, he will have a rope attached. But it’s still pretty daring. Usman will be abseiling down Senate House for the third time on June 20, and says:

After abseiling Senate House in June 2013 and October 2014, I return for a third sequel. And this time, the lovely and adventurous Reetu Kansal will be cascading down this beautiful and iconic building with me. Together, we are the International Cascaders.

International Cascaders are abseiling down Senate House on Saturday 20 June in support of St Mungo’s (www.mungos.org) who do a fantastic job helping the homeless.

For full details of how to sponsor Usman and Reetu see here.

The hearing to decide on the the IWGB’s ICE request to force UoL contractor Cofely to inform and consult properly with its employees is today!

Our reps are on their way now, seeking to overturn the original decision to reject our request.

If we win this case then it will have ramifications for the entire UK – so we’ll let you know as soon as we have further news!

The University of London IWGB is looking to expand its Spanish – English language exchange programme, and we’re looking for volunteers to help with this.

Essentially the programme involves pairing a native English speaker with a native Spanish speaker, so they can both improve their language skills.

It’s a great chance to learn Spanish AND to really help our non-native English-speaking members.

Several Spanish-speakers have already expressed an interest, so we are particularly looking for people to do a slot between 3 and 6PM weekdays and 10 and 1PM Saturdays. But we expect many more people to sign up, so whatever time you’re free, get in touch!

We’re ideally looking for people who can make a firm commitment for at least 3 months.

If you’re interested, or just want more information, please contact our Education Officer Usman Tayyab at usman.tayyab@london.ac.uk.

We normally try and keep this blog for just UoL news, but thought you might be interested in the big protest that our new IWGB comrades, the Couriers and Logistics Branch, organised yesterday.

Basically there was a big demo at City Sprint, based in Farringdon, who are one of the worst-offending companies driving down rates for the couriers, and then a tour of their clients, including the Guardian. Natalie Bennett of the Green Party spoke, and they got some great coverage, most notably on BBC London (from 16.13).

You can find out more on their website here.