The struggle for the living wage at Mitie

According to Iain Duncan Smith “work is good for you.” Try telling that to one of the cleaners at the benefits agency office in Newham and whose £6.30 an hour pay from Mitie group PLC means she needs a second job to survive.  She’s so exhausted that last year she twice experienced her “body closing down such that I thought I was dying.”

Although she preferred to remain anonymous she’s amongst a growing number, at the highly profitable company, that have joined the PCS. She’s glad to have done so saying “I don’t know what we would have done without it as we have increased our pay.” Now she dreams of having it further increased so she can work fewer hours and see more of her grandchildren.

To try and make that possible the PCS recently intervened at the Mitie AGM and after raising their concerns a meeting with Head of Facilities management Chris Townsend has been arranged to discuss demands for a living wage of £8.30 an hour. Meanwhile Denis Charles, a Mitie security guard at Bedford Magistrates Court, is attending a PCS workplace representative course that once he’s completed “will mean I can represent my colleagues.” 

Private prisons for profit

Privatisation, job cuts and closures are the future for Britain’s prisons as the government pushes forward with its plans to put profit before people.

Opening up Acklington, Castington, Coldingley, Durham, Hatfield, Lindholme, Moorland and Onley to competition comes only months after it was decided to transfer operations at Birmingham to G4S and following which 123 job cuts were swiftly announced.

Those left out of work will struggle to find employment elsewhere within the prison service as the government also intends closing Latchmere House and part of Hewell prison. All of which rather begs the question about whose going to be left to do the rehabilitation work with the 85,000 people currently locked up, and demonstrates said PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka that: "This government is obsessed with putting profit before people, even when that means making money from locking people up.

The recent announcement by G4S of job cuts in Birmingham proves it is simply untrue that these privatisation plans are about making services more efficient or effective."

The role of the workplace rep or shop steward

This is an unpublished piece from last year on the role of the workplace rep.

How many people would volunteer for additional unpaid work, particularly when there is the prospect of getting into conflict with those who pay your wages? The answer it would appear is quite a few, and they are appealing for others to join them!

Workplace reps or shop stewards play a vital role in representing and defending their fellow workers, promoting union consciousness, enforcing the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, communicating official union policy and acting as a link between the union leadership and members. Democratically elected, and open to recall by members, a good shop steward is worth their weight in gold.

London bus worker John Murphy has been a steward for 11 years at the Potters Bar garage of Metroline, which operates 80 routes across the capital.  Sick of hearing people complaining about how ineffective the union was, and convinced he could do a better job he stood for election against the serving steward and won the largest number of votes, saying; “that whilst I decided to jump in at the deep end the union by providing training, and contact with a full time officer, helps you out whilst you gain experience. You’re not left on your own.”

As the newly installed steward John was quick to challenge any misconceptions that swapping one steward for another was an end to their problems or participation in the union telling members that he “could only expect to improve conditions and win grievance and disciplinary hearings if management knew I had their support for my actions. It’s true that I have responsibility in steering, or stewarding, things by gathering and distributing information but stewards are only as good as their members allow them to be. It mean’s s/he must constantly be reporting back and explaining everything that is being done in the member’s names.”

With around 95% of the 300 plus drivers at his depot in Unite, Britain’s largest union, then John, as the only steward, can have a hectic time. A recognition agreement with the company means he is stood down from working on the buses, to run a members surgery on a Friday morning, and to represent members at the disciplinary and grievance hearings that often constitute the largest part of a stewards role in any workplace.

Certainly that latter is the case for Sam Scholey, an employee for seventeen years at the Leeds office of the telephone and internet banking company First Direct and elected Unite steward there since 2003. Just recently Sam was delighted to assist a member who was concerned by her manager taking on aspects of her job. This left the worker in a vulnerable position during a period when the company has been making redundancies.

“When we examined the evidence it was clear that the member’s concerns were genuine and when we took the case to a grievance hearing we were able to re-assert her role in the company and protect her post” said Sam.

Where people have been made redundant Sam and her fellow stewards, with their full time officer’s support, have managed to negotiate an improved package for those leaving the company that includes being informed at least a month before they are formally given three months notice. Where possible others have been re-deployed and their pay ring-fenced, for a period of time, if the new job is at a lower rate.  Just recently Sam, as one of four negotiating shop-floor stewards, has played a role alongside full-time officer Justine McCarthy in “putting forward a number of reasons why a 1% pay offer made by the company to staff should be increased.” If agreement cannot be reached then the issue will go to ACAS and possibly pendulum arbitration. With average pay at around £15,000 per annum, with 20% more for night-shift staff, then the need to see wages increased is clear. 

Sam also spends time trying to get non-members to join Unite. She says that it “is particularly difficult convincing younger workers, most of whom leave school and start work knowing nothing about unions or their role in improving wages and conditions. I tell new starters that I am elected to represent them to ensure they are treated fairly and equitably. At the same time I also tell people they can become stewards themselves if they are dissatisfied at work and feel they can help make things better. At the moment we have an agreement which allows the union to have up to 30 stewards across two sites but less than half the positions are filled.”

Such a problem is common in many workplaces. Sean Ramsden is the Unite branch secretary at Havering council and one of forty stewards spread across those who work as coach drivers, street cleaners, escorts and on meals and wheels. He says that the steward’s role “is an important one that combines a number of skills. We are always on the look-out for people to become stewards regardless of their background. We don’t just want the mouthy ones from a workplace unless they are willing to make themselves familiar with the working practices and contracts of those s/he represents. They need to know what’s going on around them and also be prepared to undertake some training to improve their skills.

Being a union steward is about ensuring the workers voices and opinions are heard and represented in decisions. In the immediate future, of course, with the severe cuts the new Government intends introducing s/he’s role especially in Local Government is going to involve motivating members to defend their terms and conditions.“

And what would John, Sam and Sean say to anyone thinking of becoming a steward?

“Go for it, someone has to do it and by helping to organise people at work it means that as workers we can have some control over our lives.” John

“Being a shop steward, if you ignore you don’t get paid, is the best job in the world especially after you’ve assisted someone at a disciplinary hearing and they tell you how their support has helped pull them through.” Sam.

“It’s hard work, but without people being willing to come forward and represent their fellow workers then everyone’s terms and conditions will suffer. It’s one of the most important roles anyone could ever commit to.” Sean

Rochdale 0 Carlisle United 0

Rochdale 0

Carlisle United 0

Pity the punters who paid between £15 and £20 to watch this poor fare. True some of the passing and movement off the ball was first class but in terms of goalmouth action, never mind serious efforts at goal, there was very little to speak of. So much so that it wasn’t until there were 24 minutes on the clock that an Ashley Grimes header had anyone dreaming of a goal. Much more wasteful was Joe Thompson who minutes later rose unmarked to head Nicky Adams corner over the Carlisle bar.

The best move of the first half came just before the end when following some fine interlink play home skipper Gary Jones saw his 18-yard effort flash over, before Peter Murphy shot narrowly wide in Carlisle’s first real effort on goal.

On the restart Grimes saw Adam Collin deny him with a decent save before home fans appealed for a penalty when Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro went down in the box. Rochdale then had Marcus Holness to thank for keeping them level when he closed down Tom Taiwo in the six-yard box. With the away side exerting late pressure James Berrett fired narrowly wide before Rochdale responded with Andrew Tutte, impressive throughout, beating Collin, but also the far post to ensure the game ended goalless. 

Standing up report - a good number of the 500 or so travelling fans stood during much of the first half. 

Cost for away fans - £20 and £14 [seated area] 

Home fans on terrace - £15, seats £20 

Liverpool 1 Suarez Sunderland 1 Larsson Half-time 1-0

Referee Phil Dowd’s generosity allowed Sunderland to escape with a point from Anfield. Having been punished for his complacency in failing to clear quickly enough Kieran Richardson brought down inside the box Luis Suarez as the Liverpool number 7 shaped to shoot.

It was true that the Uruguayan had taken a little too long in rounding Simon Mignolet but there seemed little doubt that Richardson had prevented him opening the scoring and should have been down the tunnel. In the event he was still on the field when Suarez walloped the penalty kick high over the goal.

A few minutes later this sad miss was forgotten when Suarez stooped neatly to head Charlie Adam’s free-kick beyond Mignolet. At this point there seemed absolutely no chance of Sunderland getting to half-time without being well behind and yet despite plenty of possession the home side did not do too much with it, although on another day the half shove on Anton Ferdinand by Andy Carroll might not have brought the free-kick the Sunderland defender was awarded before the Liverpool centre-forward beat Mignolet.

The keeper was also grateful to the crossbar when following a superb 35 yard run Stewart Downing hammered a powerful shot that deserved better.

View from away end 

Sunderland had rarely threatened in the first half but on the restart they were quickly level when Sebastian Larsson met Ahmed Elmohamady’s dropping to cross to volley past Pepe Reina, before running towards the ecstatic Sunderland fans in the corner.

With Asamoah Gyan and Stephane Sessegnon now seeing more of the ball up front and new man Wes Brown in resplendent form at the back Sunderland were dominant. They might also have found themselves playing ten men when Jamie Carragher’s challenge left Gyan on the ground and a few minutes off the pitch injured and substituted.

Although they created a number of chances the away side failed to really force Reina into a significant save and towards the end might have paid the penalty when Carroll should have done better with a number of well-flighted crosses towards him in the Wearsiders box.

In the summer plenty has been made of the signings Kenny Dalglish has made but as yet none of the likes of Carroll, Downing, Adam or Jordan Henderson are top-draw players and at the back with Carragher past his best it’s difficult to see Liverpool seriously challenging for a top four spot.

As regards Sunderland, it was a good point. Yet serious doubts remain about Richardson’s defensive abilities. In addition getting goals will be difficult - a better side would after equalising have won - as the departure of Darren Bent in January remains a big loss.

Bill Shankly statue outside the Kop 

Cost for away fan - £44

Number of away fans - 2,000

Home fans - good numbers but the Kop is a reflection of Liverpool’s glories and is well past its best.

Standing up report - except at key moments the home fans sat most of it with no section of the home crowd standing permanently. Away fans - most stood the whole match. 

Q&A with author of first book on disability hate crime

SCAPEGOAT: Why we are failing disabled people

Katharine Quarmby

This first ever book on disability hate crime seeks answers and poses solutions to a problem revealed as having deep historical roots.

1. Why did you write this book?

  

In 2007 I became aware of the case of Kevin Davies, a young man with epilepsy.  Held captive in a shed in the Forest of Dean he was tortured, burnt and starved before dying weighing just seven stone.

His three offenders were declared guilty - but not of murder or manslaughter - but wrongful imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. They got nine to ten years each and disgusted I began investigating disability hate crime and it didn’t take long to discover similar cases. Some of these are now well known including that of Fiona Pilkington who that same year killed herself and her severely disabled daughter after years of torment by local youths.

2. Why despite murdering 200,00 disabled citizens did those involved in the Nazis euthanasia campaign largely escape prosecution?

 Two reasons. Those killed were largely German citizens making prosecution under international law difficult but also there was sense amongst the British and American authorities that disabled people’s lives weren’t worth living and so what had happened to them wasn’t particularly wrong.

3. Does the rising number of convictions for disability hate crimes demonstrate they’re on the increase?

I think it’s more a case of better reporting but there is also some anecdotal evidence from MIND and other charities that current rhetoric around disability benefits and people being called scroungers and cheats is leading to increased hostility and attacks on disabled people.

 4. There are many disturbing, murderous cases in this book - it appears many members of the public prefer to ‘look the other way’ rather than acting to prevent them, why?

Three reasons - people generally don’t interfere when they see attacks. But many on disabled people occur where they live and physiotherapists, housing, social and support workers rarely, if ever, report them to the police, seeing them as safeguarding rather than criminal issues. Finally there is general hatred located in the belief that disabled people haven’t earned the equality they should be able to enjoy. Society condones these acts even if most people wouldn’t carry them out themselves.

 5. Why should serious case reviews relating to serious harm or death of a vulnerable adult be made compulsory for local authorities?

To discover what’s happening. At the moment they often don’t get carried out or the reports don’t get released and I feel they would show that crimes are not being reported to the police.

6. What might bring disabled and non-disabled people closer together?

I think we have de facto segregation that keeps us apart. Many non-disabled people are fearful of disabled people, believing that if they are friendly they will end up being sucked in to looking after them. This doesn’t have to be true,

We also need to see as many disabled people as possible in the community doing normal jobs. We need more disabled teachers and police officers, because if you see disabled people as contributing to society this undercuts the belief that disabled people have special perks that they don’t do anything to deserve.

  7. What’s wrong with Iain Duncan Smith’s comment that “work is good for you?

There’s nothing wrong with doing work. But the statement can be interpreted as meaning that if you’re not doing work then you’re not good, which is worrying as not everyone can work, or get paid for it.

Plenty of disabled people know how much work they can do and volunteer their services appropriately. Now they are going through assessments where non-medical practitioners are deciding how much work they think they are capable of doing. The differences of opinion can be quite stark.

There’s also anger that under the access to work initiative, that gives a disabled person extra support to help them start work, vitally needed workplace adaptations such as the installation of a hoist are not taking place. All of which means starting work is delayed for those who can go out to work.

Some observations on the riots

Last Saturday afternoon I took a stroll down Clarence Road in Hackney. Having travelled down from West Yorkshire we were en route into central London to show my three-year old son around the capital for the first time in his short life.

I have largely good memories of Clarence Road, it runs down the side of Pembury Estate and I worked on it for many years during the 1990s - even occasionally getting paid for my ‘co-ordinating’ efforts - at the Colin Roach Centre. [see http://writemark.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-spy-mark-cassidy.html

This was an unfunded radical centre that had originally opened after the council took away the funding at my workplace, the Hackney Trade Union Support Unit, and rather than see it close down it was merged with Hackney Community Defence Association [HCDA] that had been formed in 1988 to successfully oppose the criminal - including drug dealing - and brutal activities of the police. Prominent within HCDA was Celia Stubbs, the partner of Blair Peach who was killed by the police in Southall in 1979.

Colin was a young black man shot dead in Stoke Newington Police Station in January 1983, sparking a campaign that achieved much but has still failed to catch what most then and now believe are the cops who killed him. That’s the problem with cops who kill - they get away with it. In 1995 David Ewin, who wasn’t a nice man, was shot dead in Hammersmith. His wife, Sarah, a lovely woman and fresh with a little baby approached the centre to seek support. It’s a long story but for the first time ever a police officer was charged with murder in the execution of his duty. Patrick Hodgson was strange man; he’d been a firearms officer for many years and yet had failed to move up the ranks.

As Ewin, who was driving a stolen car, had clearly been blocked in on all sides by police officers in cars he could not possibly have escaped. Whereas his partner PC Patrick Kelly did not even take out his gun Hodgson felt it necessary to shoot the unarmed man. He died two weeks later.

Despite the evidence it was still something of a shock when Hodgson was charged with murder and plenty of people accompanied Sarah to witness proceedings at the highest court in the land, the Old Bailey, where as you’d imagine security was tight.

Hodgson was absolutely hopeless in the witness box, sweating profusely and constantly contradicting himself. It actually looked like the Jury would have no other option except to find him guilty when two people in the public gallery jumped up towards the end of the trial to accuse Hodgson of knowing beforehand who Ewin was. It all meant the trial was stopped and a re-trial was ordered, costing of course thousands of pounds. Those who caused this? They walked unopposed past security and out into the street. There were CCTV camera’s everywhere and it was clear that catching them wouldn’t have been that difficult - after all some people even knew who they were - but that never happened.

Even then Hodgson wasn’t off the hook, he did a little better the second time round but the majority of the Jury didn’t believe him and unable to reach a verdict it passed to another Old Bailey hearing, where the police officer got third time lucky. Watching Hodgson leave court he wore the grin of someone who had ‘got away with it’ and he had!

Now I have no way of knowing the exact circumstances in which Tottenham’s Mark Duggan was shot dead, but when I heard press reports that suggested police had been fired upon I instinctively knew this was a lie. And this might be difficult for those who have respect for the police, so did thousands of other people in Britain’s Afro-Caribbean community. When less than 200 hundred turned out to demand answers and after standing outside Tottenham Police Station for five hours got none it was already clear that a cover-up was underway.

Now for most, the vast majority of people, that wouldn’t matter. After all the most popular paper in the UK remains The Sun newspaper with its celebrity glorification and constant condemnation of anything that might, even insignificantly, threaten the rights of the rich and powerful.

After all wasn’t Duggan another ‘bad un?’ Seems like it, and therefore so what if he was shot dead, whatever the circumstances? Let the family go away and spend years - perhaps like Celia Stubbs decades - trying to get to the truth? 

Duggan’s death now does matter to people. Of course not the actual death itself, but because of the looting and rioting that has gone on since - culminating it appears with the tragedy in which three Birmingham men from the Asian community, knocked over whilst defending their communities, have been killed. Let’s hope it doesn’t prevent others taking to the streets to defend themselves as clearly no one can support ordinary working people being terrorised by gangs that are now out of control.

None of which means it’s impossible to understand - at least, in part - why people are indulging in criminal behaviour and why the likes of Cameron, Clegg, the popular press or the establishment TV station, the BBC, and certainly not the police can provide the solutions as for them it simply means - at best - a return to the status quo in which inequalities across society continue to increase. [As an aside - one which is now in fact threatening the whole capitalist system as the logic is that eventually, even in developed countries, those at the very bottom won’t have the money to spend on goods which producers need to sell in order to exist. The banks going bust remains a possibility - see http://writemark.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-there-plan-if-banks-went-bust.html

So why did many people start by kicking things off in Tottenham? Especially when Duggan, and assuming it’s true, was a nasty piece of work who was involved in criminal activities? Clearly it wasn’t liberal people who wish to uphold people’s civil rights and feel it’s wrong for the police to go around shooting people dead. In part it had to be people outside his immediate family who identified with Duggan and his lifestyle. Like many, not all, I met from the Pembury Estate when I worked there and some of whom might have been amongst the rioters being shown in Hackney running down - guess where? Yes Clarence Road - on Monday night to fight with the police and loot the shop that’s next door to what used to be the Colin Roach Centre.

In the main they’re young, unemployed, poorly educated, black and male. Plenty have quit or been chucked out of school early. They’re streetwise because without much money or things to do in often-overcrowded accommodation they’re forced to spend much of their time outside with their mates. All of which means they can expect to receive the regular attention of the police, usually white and drawn from communities outside the area where black people are often not welcome.

These officers bring their attitudes with them. On Sunday mornings during the 90s I played regularly for a decent football team and our home ground was on Hackney Marshes that is now being - at least, in part - torn up to make space for car parking at the Olympic Stadium. Up front I formed a decent partnership with a black social worker, Sam. He had two cars. One was a battered old thing for work and the other a decent BMW. Choosing which one to drive to the game was a difficult choice, select the old one and he got there on time, choose the other and he was stopped virtually every time - even by the same officers on occasions. 

It could be, of course, that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen nowadays and yet the statistics continue to show that if you’re black or Asian you’re many more times likely to be stopped. Resentment builds up; it’s only natural especially when those doing the hassle are enjoying something that those being hassled can’t, unlike Sam, obtain - a well-paid job.

That’s because they’ve left school with few qualifications - the reasons for which I cannot hope to do justice to here, but a combination of class and colour, not forgetting a caution or two from the police, are important - but also because when they do seek work the stigma of living in a poor neighbourhood and also being black inevitably counts against them. Working at the Colin Roach Centre I lost count of the number of young, and old, people who told me of how hard they had sought without success to find work.

All of which makes people easy prey for the criminal gangs that do exist in places like Hackney. Being part of a gang gives status, or RESPECT as Tony Blair might say, and just as importantly money to be able to buy things that today everyone is told by advertisers they must have to be ‘normal’ including the latest range of mobile phones. 

In some of the especially well-organised gangs it can bring lots of money and power over the neighbourhood and like it - or not - that’s something a number of people look up to, especially when the alternative is a life of unending boredom and no money. More usually the gangs are not especially well organised and the takings from crime - including street robbery - are never going to be sufficient to allow someone to enjoy an easy life.

All of which means that when Duggan is killed there are plenty of people who can identify with him, a man who despite difficulties in his life has - and I am not defending him - made sort of ‘good’ by putting two fingers up to those - the police - who many feel are just the most visible example of those who are oppressing them. As such I’d hazard a guess that many of the people who - at least, initially - started things off hold, however imperfectly, such views.

Of course many more people have since joined in. From the looks of it that seems to be a case of when it gets a bit tasty on the streets then why not join in the general mayhem? And from my experience of riots - and I’ve seen I’d guess a good hundred or so at various locations including football grounds, demonstrations, rallies and pickets, including a number in which people died or were killed - they have a momentum of their own especially after drink gets involved. People get carried away and do things they had previously never even considered. None of which I am attempting to excuse, rather I am just trying to understand.

Of course it’s wrong when people then rob shop’s that working people have often worked their cotton socks off to get up and running. Asian shopkeepers that have been attacked are right to defend themselves, and in fact because the police are often reluctant to take seriously their complaints plenty are already used to doing so.

At the same time it’s the height of hypocrisy for Cameron, Clegg and rich Tories to condemn people for being criminals, not forgetting the Sun newspaper. The latter is part of a newspaper group that continues to hide much of its financial affairs in offshore accounts, thus avoiding paying much needed tax. Other rich people and organisations continue to do the same. Meanwhile virtually the whole political class inside Parliament has been exposed as dipping illegally into the taxpayers funds that make up their wages whilst making moves to decimate working people’s wages and future pensions.

Cameron and Clegg are best mates with many of Britain’s top paid bankers. These have helped decimate much of the country and yet despite the burning anger of many people the Con-Dem’s have refused to even contemplate restricting their future bonuses.

Then there’s that symbol of everything that’s good about this country - the Royal Family. They’re so good that they need thousands of acres of land on which to live on. Other aristocrats are the same and as such Britain has the most imbalanced pattern of land ownership in the World! Less people own more of the land than anywhere else on the planet. How did they get it? Whisper it quietly, or like the BBC and other ‘responsible’ outlets ignore it completely, but they stole it. 

Aagh you may say that was centuries ago - although not as it happens in every case - but what isn’t is the fact that these same landowners are actually paid millions each year in subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy. All whilst the people living in places like the Pembury are stuffed into unsuitable overcrowded accommodation in inner city areas where for young people finding a place to live is becoming almost impossible.

Yes those doing the thieving and the mugging are being criminals, but isn’t it more criminal to have taken away the pittance that working class students were getting under the Educational Maintenance Allowance whilst not hitting bankers, MP’s, rich tax dodgers and the Royal Family in the pocket? Who needs help the most? Get the money in and redistribute it and create a more equal world. [One in fact that doesn’t leave around a quarter of it in abject poverty with no possible means of escape.]

Doing the latter will also mean that the sorts of useless things that people have been out stealing would become of little value. A mobile phone or a television or a few fashion items don’t give someone a life, they’re being stolen because every single day highly paid advertisers are sadly, with success, ramming down people’s throats that without having this particular gadget or item then you’re no-one. A person’s value is tied up with what they own, when it should be about their relationships with other people, helping others in their community and struggling to improve the lot of everyone around them. Without which there is eventually only barbarism.

Graffiti on Clarence Road shows hostility towards police and Cameron as well
as demonstrating that gangs, [E5 - postcode area and LW - Lower Clapton Road]
which are often hostile towards one another, have combined their activities.
Of course the graffiti also demonstrates some poor spelling.

* This article has not touched on the decline of organisations such as the Colin Roach Centre in places like Hackney. Imperfect as it was it did give an opportunity for often dispossessed people to rally round and fight back against an uncaring system.