Cleaners in London achieved some successes with their campaign for a living wage, which was supported by Unite for around two years. But the union have now dropped their support for the Justice for Cleaners campaign and appear to have lost the confidence of many of the cleaners.
Justice for Cleaners – launch of London Citizen Workers, May 1, 2006
The cleaners are continuing their campaign and one of their targets is the large office block of the insurance brokers Willis, immediately to the east of the Lloyds building on the opposite side of Lime Street. Cleaning of the offices is subcontracted to Mitie Cleaning and Support Services Ltd, part of a huge business group offering all kinds of services to businesses which is one of the top three providers of cleaning for commercial and public sector premises.
Demo opposite Willis’s in Lime St at lunchtime on Thursday
Mitie decided to change the working hours for cleaners at Willis from 7-11pm to 10pm-6am. Five cleaners who had been active in organising for better conditions including the living wage were then dismissed, apparently illegally, on grounds of redundancy.
When the cleaners decided to protest outside the Willis building they were amazed to get a letter from the company telling them that their union had signed an agreement banning workers from demonstrating outside company buildings. They had done so without consulting or even informing the workers. So the demonstrations have gone ahead without union backing.
Reinstate the sacked cleaners
This lunchtime saw the latest in a series of demonstrations that started on 12 Feb and around twenty people including cleaners and their supporters turned up to demonstrate noisily outside Willis, with slogans and whistles. They say they will keep up these demonstrations “until we get our jobs back… we have families to support and children to feed. We are completely sure about the unfairness of the company decision.”
More pictures on My London Diary.