Branch Secretary : info@housingworkers.org.uk
  

 

The Unite Housing Workers Branch (LE1111)

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Sanctuary housing maintenance workers step up action

 

Management agree ACAS talks

 

Members at Sanctuary Housing delivered rock solid strike action and followed that up by announcing escalation with further strikes starting on March 20th.  

 

 

Pickets were well attended, and strikers were moved by expressions of support and donations from tenants. Given Sanctuary’s refusal to recognise Unite the fact that they have now accepted an invitation from the government conciliation service, ACAS, to talks marks a significant step forward.

 

 

They are striking for union recognition, decent pay and for fair working time arrangements.

 

Further action

 

Unite rep Charles Christodoulou writes:

 

It was raining hard as I approached the picket line at 7.10am. Originally, I thought: ‘There’s no one here.’ I could see our   Unite branch chair, Paul, standing, waiting… and then they started to flock in. Until we were at 27!

 

I thought to myself: ‘We are ready now’. About half an hour in, our senior management came towards us with a shocked face. They didn’t expect so many, raising our morale. 

 

We were here to fight for recognition of our union, and also our pay rise. We received a pay cut last year – RPI inflation was at 11.4%, we received 4%. We now know we have been given 4% again, a further pay cut. And now we are also seeking parity with the office staff for our holidays and sickness benefits.

 

We were contacted by workers in Canterbury asking to join the union. Our colleagues in Essex were asked by management to cover some of our jobs, and they asked: ‘Why do we have to cover London jobs?’ When they were told it was because we are striking, they refused to cross our picket line, and this lifted all our spirits.

 

We have now given notice for further action which will start on 20 March, a further week split over two weeks, and I see this as an opportunity to engage with the areas that have approached us. We can join them up to the union. This year’s campaign for pay will be with our brothers and sisters in Ely, Canterbury, Essex, Rochford and Oxfordshire. I hope with the support of Unite!

 

Support pledged

 

Steve O’Donnell, London and Eastern Regional Secretary of Unite, joined the picket and pledged support for the strike. Members of the branch distributed leaflets on some Sanctuary estates before the strike explaining the issues. Tenants came out of their homes to tell leaflitters how much they supported the workers. On the picket line tenants brought money and some home-baked cakes.

 

 

New members have been joining Unite around the country. We have also had interest from housing maintenance workers in other housing associations; many have similar issues to those in the London Sanctuary maintenance team. Contact us on info@housingworkers.org.uk if you want to get organised.

 

 

We will discuss all this at our branch agm on Saturday March 23rd – all members welcome. The next strike days are Wednesday 20th March, Thursday 21st, Friday 22nd and then Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th.

 

 

Read more about Unite in Sanctuary here

 

Find pickets, strike activities and how to help here

 

11th March 2024

 

 

Top Unite wins so far this year

 

Fightback

Here are some of the pay rises gained by union members through workplace organising strike action and collective bargaining so far this year. Real wages have been driven down while public services and benefits have been cut. But Unite is backing workers who fight back.

 

 

20% increase in sick pay

Just this week members working for GLL won a 20% rise in sick pay after a twenty-four hour walk out. Unite General Secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “While this is a welcome step in the right direction, Unite won’t stop here. Our members deserve better pay and conditions and GLL is in a position to improve its offers across the board. We will continue to stand with workers at Greenwich and Bromley library until all demands are met.”

 

 

25% pay rise for parking officers 

Parking enforcement officers won an impressive 25% pay rise in Slough after a month of industrial action. 40 workers employed by Saba Park Services will benefit from an increase in the lowest hourly pay to £13.20 from £10.50.

Membership in the workplace tripled from 13 to 40 as Unite also established recognition during negotiations. The union said the victory came after Slough’s Conservative council had washed its hands of the dispute, saying it didn’t believe it had a role to play in the dispute. 

 

 

Lump sum payment won for Mitie workers

Following a long campaign lobbying the private sector outsourced company Mitie and the government, healthcare workers in the west midlands were awarded over £1600 lump sum payments they were owed. 

Mitie eventually agreed to pay the lump sum following strike action and determination from the members who worked in roles including catering and admin roles at hospitals in Dudley, and who ‘stood strong and lobbied hard’ for their payment.

 

 

Workers get ‘much needed’ pay boost in cost-of-living crisis 

Workers for the Suntory Beverage & Food in Gloucestershire, which produces Lucozande and Ribena, secured a 5.5% pay increase, calling off escalated strike action. 

It followed a broken promise by the company to review staff pay should inflation exceed five per cent before June 2023. However fresh talks were held after strikes last month and a deal was settled, providing members with the “much needed support during a difficult economic period”, the regional officer said.

Sharon Graham commented  “The unity of our members was critical. Once Suntory saw that members were not prepared to budge it returned to the bargaining table with an improved offer. This result again demonstrates how Unite is actively delivering improvements to the jobs, pay and conditions of our members.”

 

 

Tram drivers pay soars up by 33% in two years

Metro tram drivers in the West Midlands secured a 13.5% pay rise in February, negotiated without the need for industrial action.

However the tram drivers have had a 33.6% total increase in wages since 2022, after gaining a 20% rise in 2022 after taking strike action and seeing their salaries leap from £22,000 to £30,100, getting a “well-deserved increase” after being paid “too little for what they did”, Sharon Graham Unite’s general secretary said. 

 

 

‘Outstanding’ pay rise for thousands of construction workers

Thousands of construction workers benefited from a two-year pay rise worth a minimum of 17.4% which Graham hailed as an “outstanding deal”. 3,000 workers who carry out essential repair and maintenance work on oil refineries, power stations and plants benefited from the uplift following a strike ballot. 

“This outstanding deal was achieved because our members knew the NAECI employers could not ignore their demands if they acted collectively,” said Graham.

 

29 March 2024

 

 

 

Building a political voice to fight the housing crisis

 

Every week new figures illustrate deepening housing crisis

 

 

As the housing crisis intensifies, how can we fight back? Our branch is campaigning for policies that would make a difference and we engage in the debate on how Unite and other unions can forge an effective political voice.

 

 

Nightmare

 

Just 5% of private rentals are affordable for people on housing benefit according to a report from the IFS this week. New figures come through every week showing the intensifying housing crisis across all tenures.

 

This week housing associations told Inside Housing that rent arrears have now risen to a higher level than during the pandemic.  Numerous commentators have warned that people with mortgages face a ‘nightmare’ as the Bank of England pushes up interest rates.  In London the number of people sleeping rough has risen by 1700 over the last year according to figures from the GLA, also this week.

 

Commercialised

 

More social housing is desperately needed but housing associations are cutting back on development and according to another survey this week just 17% of the new homes they build are social rented rather than more expensive tenures.  When the effects of regeneration schemes, tenure change and right to but are taken into account housing associations have been responsible for a net loss of social housing in recent years. This reflects how they have become increasingly commercialised.

 

Unite housing workers campaigning against the housing crisis

 

As housing workers this crisis hits us hard; we see the consequences on society in our work and below inflation pay increases mean many members live in fear of losing their homes or are poorly housed.

 

Stark contrast

 

Unite has excellent policies to address the housing crisis and our recent branch resolution which will be put to the Unite Policy Conference in July seeks to update and strengthen Unite policy. But they stand in stark contrast to the main political party’s policies and unfortunately that includes Labour.

 

In a speech to the Chartered Institute of Housing conference this week Labour’s Lisa Nandy made it clear that the Labour front bench is startlingly close to the Tories. In her speech she criticised calls for mortgage relief and rent control as prices soar, “Targeted mortgage relief that fuels the inflation crisis is no substitute for stabilising the economy and getting interest rates under control. And when housebuilding is falling off a cliff and buy-to-let landlords are leaving the market, rent controls that cut rents for some will almost certainly leave others homeless. It might be politically easy to put a sticking plaster on our deep-seated problems. But if it’s cowardice that got us here, it is never going to get us out.”

 

Owned by private landlords

 

There is a desperate need for rent control, and it is a policy that has massive support according to polling.  The Thatcher government ended rent control and secure tenancies for the private rented sector, Unite calls for their return. Her comments only make any sense in the absence of a serious programme of council house building.

 

Nandy also committed to retaining right to buy, which continues to erode the very limited supply of social housing, and she rejected calls for a temporary suspension of right to buy. Since the policy was launched in 1980, about two million council homes have been sold. An estimated 40% of them are now owned by private landlords who rent them out at much higher rates. She added that she “agrees with the government” that council should keep receipts from sales to build new homes. But councils say this is nowhere near enough to replace lost social housing.

 

Political representation

 

When Jeremy Corbyn launched his leadership campaign one of the reasons our branch campaigned for Unite to support him was that started from the idea that ‘there can be no solution to the housing crisis that doesn’t start from a mass programme of council house building.’

 

As a branch we will continue to campaign on housing and to support the housing association tenant and resident campaign SHAC.  We also participate in the debate in Unite on political representation.  At the forthcoming rules conference, we have a proposed rule change which would mean that the political committees of the union would no longer require full Labour Party membership as a requirement of sitting on them. Currently, if Labour expels a member, they can no longer sit on these Unite committees – why should Labour choose the makeup of our committees?

 

Party that supports workers

 

For Policy Conference we have an amendment to a resolution which would instruct the union to carry out a referendum of the whole membership on political representation. Should Unite be able to support candidates for Parliament who support Unite policy but are not Labour candidates? Currently the union can only support official Labour by rule.  A possible example would be Jeremy Corbyn. The national party have said that he cannot be a Labour candidate, but local supporters want him to stand. Current rules would suggest that Unite could not support him.

 

There is a crying need for a party that supports the battles of workers defending their living standards and campaigns on a socialist housing policy. We need a serious debate on how we get one. Even a workers list of candidates that support Unite policies would change the terms of debate at the next election.

 

1 July 2023

 

 

 

Housing workers branch housing resolution

 

The housing crisis in Britain has intensified in recent years making the progressive housing policies of Unite still more urgent.  

 

Housing associations (HAs) now manage the majority of social rented homes. In recent years, high-profile HA disrepair cases have highlighted the need for increased investment in the social housing stock. The tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to mould is an example; the coroner’s ruling noted that the landlord had inappropriately sought to blame the tenant’s lifestyle. The cases collectively demonstrate the dangers that flow from an increasingly commercialised HA sector.  

 

For decades the policy of successive UK governments has been to increase the role of private capital in social housing provision. Since the global financial crisis, financial institutions such as the giant asset managers BlackRock, have been expanding into rented housing on a global scale. This has driven further financialisaton of our social housing. A pattern of rising rents, rampant service charges, and shocking disrepairs have resulted.

 

The fastest growing part of the HA sector is now the infiltration of ‘for profit’ associations, effectively subsidiaries of institutions including BlackRock and Blackstone. The current HA business model means that HAs are massively indebted to big finance. As a result, their priority is to appease their bondholders and lenders over meeting housing need. The total debt of English HAs stands at £86.3 billion (2021).  

 

Council housing has also been damaged by a lack of investment. Increasingly, they rely wholly on HAs to provide new social housing within their borough boundaries. In London, 23,000 social rented homes were demolished over the last decade but only 12,050 new social homes were built; a disgraceful net loss of desperately needed social rented homes. Social landlords use such regeneration as a profitable opportunity to move to higher rent tenures, prioritising profit and financial return over social need.  

 

The Grenfell fire tragically illustrated many aspects of the housing crisis, including the impact of cuts, lack of investment, deregulation, and an absence of democratic accountability. The lack of Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP) resulted in 40% of disabled residents dying in the fire. Prior to the tragedy, residents raising safety concerns were threatened with legal action.  

 

These factors combined with construction companies’ criminal negligence led to a tragic end. Yet in the years since, there have been multiple and disgraceful failures in the government response.  

 

Britain remains an outlier in permitting the construction of tall Grenfell-style housing blocks with only one staircase, despite the conflict that this causes in the event of an emergency, with fire fighters forced to use the same staircase as residents. Both the Fire Brigades Union and fire chiefs have called for a ban on single-stairway tower blocks. 

 

Across the housing sector, the cost-of-living crisis is leading to a rise in evictions and homelessness, as provision remains woefully inadequate.  

 

We call on Unite to campaign for:  

  • A return to fully grant funded social housing accountable to local communities and residents. Councils should be funded to deliver 150,000 new social rent homes
    each year, including 100,000 council homes.  
  • A massive programme of investment to bring social housing up to a high standard and to retrofit fire safety and green energy saving updates with a shift from outsourcing to using Direct Labour Organisations.  
  • Councils to adopt a ‘needs based’ policy to fight housing cuts in line with Unite policy.  
  • Public landlords to be held democratically accountable, with support provided by Unite for representative resident organisations.  
  • Local authority and HAs to act on the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations to devise PEEPs for residents, and for government to make this a mandatory requirement.  
  • Planning authorities to use their powers to ensure buildings are safe and prevent the construction of more single fire stairway buildings. We also call on the government to ban single staircase tower blocks.  
  • The government’s long-term pledge to ban unfair no fault ‘section 21’ evictions to be implemented immediately.  
  • A reintroduction of the pre-1989 position of secure tenancies with rent controls. 
  • Support for the call by housing campaigns including the Social Housing Action Campaign and New Economic Foundation for all landlords to implement a rent and service charge freeze. 
  • Labour to support the rent and service charge freeze. To date, they have resisted such calls.

 

 

Follow us on twitter @UniteHousing and keep up to date by looking at our news pages here.

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