Part of the fascination of the City of London is its curious mix of ancient and modern. You see it every direction you look. Even the Druids who I’d photographed earlier celebrating their ancient traditions, were wearing trainers on their feet and one had not switched off a mobile phone which rang halfway through the event.
The cleaners who were out again in front of insurance brokers Willis seemed too to embody something both ancient and modern – up against modern capitalism, which seems to espouse a pretty Neanderthal attitude to labour relations, facing up to a modern hi-tech office building with only their voices and whistles.
This was the latest in a series of protests following the sacking of five cleaners – all trade unionists – by the contracting firm, Mitie, which have been going on since mid-February. These protests are unofficial, organised by the cleaners themselves, as their union doesn’t appear to be doing anything to fight their case.
The demonstration on Friday was very much a case of deja-vu, and little seems to have happened since I photographed an earlier protest in the same place two weeks ago.
