Cleaners organised in UVW launch three simultaneous migrant workers strikes across London

You can donate to the strike fund for these disputes here.

The simultaneous strikes will take place at the Ministry of Justice, Health Care America and The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and are scheduled for Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th of August.

The cleaners are mostly Portuguese and Spanish-speaking Latin Americans and Africans from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.

Striking Ministry of Justice worker Luis said: ‘Even though we are paid minimum wage, the company still tries to make us work harder and harder, doing more tasks and cleaning more and the company doesn’t send anyone to replace the workers who are sick or absent. It is because they don’t even listen to us or treat us with respect that we have to strike. It is for this that we call this place the Ministry of Injustice.’

The Ministry of Justice cleaners work under the OCS contract at three MoJ sites including the Headquarters at Petit France. The strike ballot and vote there saw a 100% turn out and a 100% vote in favour of industrial action.

UVW members employed by Compass for Health Care America clean eight hospitals and care centres including The Shard, Guys Cancer Hospital and Harley Street Clinic. Health Care America is the biggest private health care company in the world.

Mercedes, a striking cleaner at Health Care America said: ‘We are not just demanding fair pay, we need basic vaccinations, including Hepatitis B and Tetanus, which are being denied to us even though we regularly come in direct contact with bodily fluids including blood. These are luxury hospitals, why can’t we get what we need?’

UVW members clean Kensington and Chelsea Town Halls. These are the flagship public and administrative sites for the UK’s wealthiest and arguably most controversial local council – the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, home to the preventable Grenfell Tower disaster which killed 72 people on June 14th 2017. The cleaners there work for global services giant Amey.

Currently, workers involved in all three disputes share three common grievances and have three common demands:

1) An occupational sick pay scheme

Amey, OCS and Compass do not have an occupational sick pay scheme. This means workers rely on Statutory Sick Pay. SSP is unpaid for the first three days of illness. Thereafter workers will receive just £18 per day from the fourth day of sickness onwards. This means workers are being forced to come to work when sick in order to meet their living costs such as the astronomical rents in the capital. Workers, say UVW are having to choose between their health and their home.

2) Parity of terms and conditions with directly employed staff

The second common grievance and demand of the strike is equality between subcontracted and directly employed staff in terms of holiday entitlements, hours and overtime pay. A two-tier workforce leads to undercutting, a race to the bottom and exploitation say UVW.

3) Payment of the London Living Wage with guaranteed annual increments

The London Living Wage is currently £10.20ph – a stark contrast to the National Minimum Wage, bizarrely re-labelled the National Living Wage by the Conservative Government in 2016, which is just £7.83ph.

Cleaning for RBKC, Mauricio said: ‘It is really hard to survive in London, you have to think about what you can and can’t buy, which bill to pay, it’s very difficult. I wanted to live near my work but it is impossible for me. I live in a room in an apartment with another family, that is how it is here.’

It is the first time that the union is running three simultaneous strikes. If successful they have the potential to increase the terms and conditions of thousands of workers across not only the 13 striking sites but beyond.

A win at the MoJ could lead to a 25% wage increase for over 1000 outsourced staff across the recently unified MoJ contract, previously run by 12 separate contractors. It could also lead to other government departments agreeing to pay Living Wage, and workers for Health Care America gaining more confidence to also fight for a dignified income.

UVW, an independent union formed in 2014 and not affiliated to the TUC, has succeeded in winning living wage, sick pay, holiday pay and an end to outsourcing for cleaners all over London including at The Daily Mail offices, Sothebys and the London School of Economics where cleaners now have living wage and parity with professors in terms of sick pay and holiday pay – a first in the history of UK Higher Education.

In 2011, Westminster, and Hammersmith and Fulhman councils joined RBKC in a ‘Tri-borough’ agreement to share one single outsourcing service until 2023. UVW believe that a win at RBKC could lead to Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham also becoming living wage councils.