Courageous fighters’ victory

If there was ever any doubt as to whether industrial action is effective, Greenwich library workers wouldn’t be able to tell you.

In an unequivocal victory for Unite and its members working in the borough’s libraries, their dispute over pay and staff cuts has finally been settled after their courageous fight for justice.

Strike action began October 14, when more than 80 library assistants and senior library assistants from across 12 Greenwich libraries walked out.

Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), a ‘social enterprise’ which was awarded a contract in 2012 by Greenwich council to run the borough’s libraries, had presided over cuts to staff and had resolved to keep wages below the levels of other local government workers.

Considering local government workers are already paid such low wages, as UNITElive has reported, GLL’s pay standards were particularly unacceptable to a workforce providing a vital community service to families across the borough.

The settlement on offer, which is subject to further talks, has led Unite members to suspend strike action. The settlement includes:

 
• 12.5 full-time equivalent library posts (FTEs). Unite had estimated 13.5 FTEs were needed. The offer on the table is the equivalent of 17 new staff.

 
• GLL’s agreement to keep staff pay in line with the amount awarded to local government workers in latest pay round.

 
• GLL’s pledge that no library services would be cut unless instructed by Greenwich council.

Striking workers were in the midst of their second day of industrial action yesterday (October 30), but suspended further action, including today’s proposed strike, once the offer was made.

“Unite members in Greenwich have won an important victory in defence of libraries as a public service and by showing solidarity, they have made large gains on the staffing and pay issues,” Unite regional officer Onay Kasab said.

“They have shown that the bosses can be taken on and be forced to back down, if you are well-organised and determined enough. I congratulate every one of our members who won this victory,” he added.

Satisfied with the settlement, Kasab said the proposals “met our demands as near as possible to 100 per cent,” but added that there was still much work to be done.

“The next stage is to meet the employers and agree the timetable for the recruitment process and also establish a system for ensuring that, in future, all vacant posts are filled,” he said.

GLL runs a number of leisure centres across the capital and uses zero-hour contracts for two thirds of its staff – yet the company claims to be a ‘social enterprise’.

GLL has come under fire before, when it bid on a contract to take over Croydon’s library services. It put in the cheapest bid but scored marks of “weak” or “very weak” in 12 out of 19 criteria used to assess the contractor’s quality, including very weak marks for HR, staffing, training and development.