Fighting for what’s fair

UNITElive joined striking St Mungo’s Broadway workers on a picket line in Central London this morning (Tuesday October 21) in the howling wind and pouring rain.

The 650 housing charity staff are staging a week-long strike over new management’s attacks on their pay and terms and conditions.

The new management team imported from Broadway, the junior partner in the recent merger, are trying to force through downgraded policies and procedures, the removal of pay from collective bargaining and lower salaries for new starters creating a two tier workforce.

The workers are scared for both their own and their client’s futures. To protect their identity we have removed their names.

One member said, “I feel really undervalued, scared and shocked at what’s happening. Not knowing what’s happening to my pay is so hard.”

The housing charity workers are concerned that pay cuts could demotivate staff and have a knock on effect for their clients.

“People are saying maybe students will be brought in to do the jobs, which worries me as clients won’t get the support they need,” added another member.

The staff support clients with very complex needs, which include mental health issues, substance abuse and previous offences, as well as supporting elderly and vulnerable people.

Members told UNITElive that, “It’s a very challenging job. We do unsocial hours. Late shifts, early shifts, Saturdays and Sundays. It’s a lot to ask for less than £20,000. We love doing it but we also want to be paid a decent wage in recognition of all of that.”

Members are clear – they are striking for what’s fair.

“Senior management is claiming the cuts have to be made because of cuts to our funding from the government and the financial situation but they’ve all had pay rises,” reported one member.

“They should be cutting from the top to the bottom not from the bottom and then rewarding that money to those at the top. It’s unfair and it’s not right.”

Staff are highly qualified. “We are skilled, experienced staff. Most of us are educated to degree level and some of us were previously social workers. We do this job because we love London and its people and we want to do everything we can to make it a better place.”

St Mungo’s Broadway offers accommodation to homeless people who have either been sleeping on the streets or referred in because they have nowhere else to live.

“We offer them employment and training. If they have mental health issues we link them in with the mental health team. We support them and help them get back into independent living.”

Management also wants to enforce procedural changes which will compromise employees’ ability to defend themselves in diciplinaries and grievances and make it easier for management to force through redundancies.

“Cheap labour, downgraded roles, staff working under minimum standard policies and procedures are never a path to quality in social care,” said Nicky Marcus, Unite regional officer.

The workers say the only way forward is for management to negotiate with them.

“If you implement changes before the end of a consultation then it’s no longer a consultation,” added Nicky.

Since the dispute began Unite has recruited 250 new members from St Mungo’s Broadway.

Seven facts about St Mungo’s and Broadway
1.    St Mungo’s began helping people sleeping rough off the streets in 1969
2.    Rough sleeping has risen nationally by 37 per cent since 2010
3.    52 per cent of clients have issues with substance use
4.    60 per cent of clients have mental health issues
5.    One third of the charity’s clients don’t have the necessary literacy skills to complete a form without help
6.    45 per cent of clients are ex-offenders or have been in prison
7.    Over the course of 2012/13, 6,437 people slept rough at some point in London