Read on Twitter
A story of political hope, for today:
Seven years ago this month, I sat in a broom cupboard in the University of London student union and talked with three cleaners there. Marta was 64, worked three jobs a day, had suffered a fractured pelvis and was bullied by her supervisor.
Seven years ago this month, I sat in a broom cupboard in the University of London student union and talked with three cleaners there. Marta was 64, worked three jobs a day, had suffered a fractured pelvis and was bullied by her supervisor.
She and the others called themselves The Invisibles, because hardly anyone on campus acknowledged them. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/25/university-london-cleaners-economic-apartheid
They served the University of London but worked for a contractor that gave them no sick pay, no holiday, no pension. Those were their 3 cosas (3 demands).
Many had been in what is now the UK’s largest trade union, Unison. But documents in 2014 showed that union reps had secretly conspired with university managers to water down their demands. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/24/cost-private-contracts-universities-documents-services-workers
Now they were in a tiny union, the @IWGBunion . Hence the broom cupboard. They worked with a guy called Jason @MoyerLee , who was just finishing up his PhD and then planned to go back to his native Maine to campaign for Elizabeth Warren (those were the days!).
I met them in 2013, as the campaign was getting more vocal and taking direct action. Over the years, cleaners at other campuses won their battles but not at Senate House. But the cleaning work done by Marta and others remained outsourced and the contract kicked from firm to firm
Until this week, when the cleaners have at last been made direct employees of the University of London. Now Jason is finally (!) stepping down from the IWGB and among those bidding to become general secretary is Henry Chango-Lopez, a cleaner at the University back in 2010.
This is what I talk about when I talk about politics. Not polling, not talking heads, not hot takes. A grind that means someone like Marta (who must be over 70 now) is treated like anyone else. http://theguardian.com/education/2020/nov/03/university-of-london-cleaners-win-10-year-outsourcing-battle
