How far does Cameron want to shrink the state? Ask Barnet’s binmen

How far does Cameron want to shrink the state? Ask Barnet’s binmen –

Aditya Chakrabortty. Guardian Newspaper

“I’d urge you to support the binmen, care workers, librarians and other council staff striking in Barnet right now.”

“this fight in an outer-London borough forms the frontline of one of the most important battles in Britain today.”

“the cost of interim and agency staff is ballooning from £12.5m two years ago to £15.5m.”

“What you’re seeing in Barnet is not some one-off, but a test case.”

“In David Cameron’s first term, public sector outsourcing almost doubled to £120bn.”

“This makes what’s happening this week in Barnet, and the fight it’s part of, so vital.”

“If you support decent public services, you have to support those strikers in Barnet foregoing pay.”

“And if you want to live in a country run as a democracy, with all its flaws and failings – rather than by big companies answerable to hardly anyone – their cause is yours.”

Read article here: http://t.co/rXCqZWRTF9

#‎BarnetStrikers

 

Scottish National Party (SNP) Chris Stephens MP message of support to Barnet Council workers

Chris provided the following message of support on his visit to Barnet today 2 June 2015.

“As a UNISON activist before being elected, I know that Barnet UNISON has been raising the issues of outsourcing & privatisation at the very top of our union.

The attacks from this malevolent, ideological right wing tory council needs to be highlighted.

I know UNISON members in Barnet care about the services they deliver.

Outsourcing of local authority services have never worked, and are being brought back in-house – why? Because that is the most efficient way of running public services.

The running of public services should not be made by faceless directors in company boardrooms.

The new tory government now want to attack working people, by changing strike laws, which under the same criteria would have resulted in 270 tory MPs not being elected.

One rule for the political elite and another for working people.

I send solidarity to all Barnet UNISON members on behalf of the SNP and the SNP Trade Union Group.

We are inspired by your example and in your determination to stand up to Tory attacks against the workers.”

 

Why we are on strike on 8 July

Why are we on strike?

Six years ago Barnet Council introduced a policy known as Future Shape which morphed into ‘easyCouncil’*.This imposed a series of tariffs on residents wishing to access a range of services. A basic service would be offered to residents at a fixed price, but ‘fast track’ services might be available if you paid extra.

This approach was quickly abandoned by the consultant driven One Barnet Programme, which led to the following Council Services being outsourced/privatised in the space of three years:

1. Social Care for Adults with disabilities to Your Choice Barnet

2. Housing Options to Barnet Homes

3. Parking Services to NSL

4. Revenues & Benefits, IT, HR & Payroll, Pensions, Health & Safety, Finance, Estates, Property Services, Procurement, Projects all now part of Capita CSG

5. Environmental Health, Planning, Building Control, Hendon Cemetery & Crematorium, Highways, Trading Standards & Licensing all now Capita RE

6. Legal Services

7. Registrars & Nationality Services

8. CCTV

9. Music Trust

10. Public Health

11. Mortuary Services.

Over the past three years our members have seen hundreds of colleagues transferred to other employers. This has often meant redundancy as the new employer has moved jobs out of the borough and Greater London to places as far afield as Belfast, Carlisle, Coventry, Southampton and Darlington.

Now we are in the final phase for what remains of Council services.

Barnet has branded this final phase as the ‘Commissioning Council’.

Very few people know what Commissioning really means, but if you work for the Council we all know it means that we will no longer be working for the Council.

On 3 March 2015 Barnet Council agreed its next Five Commissioning Plans all of which are looking at ‘Alternative Delivery Models’, jargon for working for a different employer.

The Council Services now at risk of outsourcing are:

1. Early Years – 13 Children’s Centres

2. Library Services

3. Adults & Communities services

4. Street Scene Services e.g. Waste & Recycling, Street Cleansing, Parks and Transport

5. Education & Skills and School Meals services.

Speaking to the Council

Over the past six years Barnet UNISON has made numerous, well-documented attempts to speak to the Council. Our voice, however, has been drowned out by expensive consultants who appear to have been running the Council for all this time.

We exhausted the internal procedures to try and avoid having to register a dispute. We finally declared a formal dispute with the Council on 4 December 2014.

Despite this on 12 January 2015 Barnet Council made a decision to put Education & Skills and School Meals services out for sale.

Three big multinational contractors are now bidding to win a contract valued at almost £1bn.

We are still waiting for the Council to return to the negotiating table but time is marching on.

Our members want to work for the Council, they want to be directly accountable to the residents of Barnet.

Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will have to place the shareholders’ legal demands before local residents’ needs.

Our members don’t want to work for an employer which  uses zero hours contracts.

Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will not pay the London Living Wage as a basic minimum.

Our members don’t want to work for an employer which won’t allow their colleagues to belong to their Pension Scheme, and

Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will take jobs out of the borough.

That’s why 87% of our members working for the Council voted ‘Yes’ to taking strike action.

John Burgess

Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON

 

*easyCouncil is back: at a recent Full Council meeting on 14 April Conservative Councillors decided to adopt an easyCouncil approach to Planning Services. If you have the money you can fast track your request! 

Why we are striking from a Library worker

Why we are striking from a Library worker

Library Workers are taking strike action to defend their jobs and the Library Service.  Barnet Council plan to privatise our Libraries, or to hand them over to a “mutual”, or in some cases have them run by “Community groups”.   Some Libraries may be closed, and most will be reduced to 540 square feet in size.  Libraries will be unstaffed for two thirds of their opening hours, with under- 16 year olds being denied access without an adult during these times.  Even when Libraries are staffed, numbers will be reduced by as much as one third of their present levels.

Libraries will become little more than book collection points. The choice of items to borrow or view will be reduced as Libraries are shrunk. Study areas, meeting places, events and activities such as story times for toddlers will be cut due to lack of space and staff. Advice and help from experienced and qualified Library staff will be limited as they are replaced by volunteers and self-service machines.  Unstaffed Libraries may deter many people from visiting as there will be no one to deal with emergencies or anti-social behaviour

Library Workers and other Council staff are only taking strike action after the employers have failed to seriously negotiate with us on the future of Council services.  We ask for your support as we defend our and your Libraries.

Hugh Jordan

 

UNISON Convenor for Library Services

8 ways you can support Barnet Council workers taking strike action.

Barnet Council workers are taking strike action and our newspaper Barnet VOICE explain why here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Barnet%20Voice.pdf

Lots of people have asked how they can support the campaign.

Here are 8 ways you can help.

Please sign our petition https://t.co/rMyBAeVDOQ

Pop down to our picket lines, details here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/2015.06.01%20Strike%20leaflet.pdf

Promote our campaign song “The easyCouncil Loco-motion” https://youtu.be/Wi0bdgofsmM

Promote this animation about how Austerity is impacting our community. https://youtu.be/YQ5t63fSu-s

Follow us on Twitter here https://twitter.com/barnet_unison

Follow us on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barnet-Unison-branch/476910392463004 and like our page and share our posts.

Please send messages of solidarity & support to contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

Please send donations to Barnet UNISON office at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

Where will I be working by 2017?

As a result of the latest news about the proposed new Council offices in Colindale, staff have been asking “Where will I be working by 2017 and who for?”

The latest staffing figures for the move to Building 2 & Barnet House are 1880 staff. This figure includes partner organisations such as NHS, *CSG and Re.

The current staff are working in 284,000 sq ft

Phase One

To move the above staff into 114,754 sq ft (Barnet House 70,000 sq ft & Building 2 44,754 sq ft) with exception of * CSG staff.

Phase Two

To move remaining staff to new building at Colindale 90,000 sq ft

(* CSG staff are being relocated to and area within Barnet and the likely move date will be during September. Revs and Bens team will remain at Barnet House)

The current plan is to reduce the office space in 2017 by approximately 68% which leaves the question “where do all the staff go? “

Using the figures above it would mean only 602 of the 1880 staff would move to Colindale.

This issue has an impact on our members working across Barnet Council, CSG & Re it is important that members attend the following meeting:

The Council have published the plans for Colindale here

https://www.barnet.gov.uk/citizen-home/news/Council-publishes-proposals-to-move-to-Grahame-Park.html

Barnet UNISON branch meeting:

 

Monday 8 June 12 noon in the Central Room, Building 4, NLBP

Barnet UNISON stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Tory Councils

Not a headline a members would have expected to see but as we forecast in our Barnet Voice newspaper here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Barnet%20Voice.pdf

The Budget everyone in local government feared is due on Wednesday 8 July.

Not only Barnet UNISON are fearful, so are local councils across the UK and as Barnet Council are still a member of the Local Government Association one can only assume this letter was written on their behalf

“Tory council leaders across England and Wales have presented a united front with Labour and Lib Dem-run local authorities as they warn the chancellor, George Osborne, that another round of funding cuts would devastate local services and harm the most vulnerable in society.” (http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/16/tory-councils-osborne-no-further-austerity)

Impact of Austerity on people with disabilities

An open letter from disabled people about further welfare cuts

“A third of disabled adults already live in poverty. Disabled people and those needing social care have already been hit up to 19 times harder by cuts than others.”  (http://dpac.uk.net/2015/05/an-open-letter-from-disabled-people-about-further-welfare-cuts/)

 

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