Listen to strategy plea

Workers at Tory controlled Bromley council have voted by 87 per cent in favour of a second round of strike action against the council’s plans for mass privatisation of services.

The selected strike dates, from April 27 to May 19, will hit libraries, parks and passenger services.

Despite having ÂŁ130m in reserves, the council is privatising the bulk of its services, including services aimed at vulnerable members of the community.

“The previous two days of strike action earlier this month led to libraries shutting, the care centre closing and the passenger services not running,” said Onay Kasab, Unite regional official.

“While this was inconvenient to local people, the bigger picture is that if we don’t make a stand against privatisation, there will be gradual erosion in what people have been used to expect from their council, leaving just skeleton services,” Onay added.

The council’s Labour group has accused the Conservative-dominated authority of being “openly committed to being a ‘commissioning council’ and to reducing the number of direct council employees from 4,000 to just 300.”

Onay Kasab said that the Labour analysis of what is happening in Bromley regarding privatisation and the ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of services, and pay and conditions was ‘spot on’.

“The aim of the strikes is to stop and roll back the privatisation of council services. Such privatisation has been shown to fail when it has been implemented in Bromley over the last 12 months,” said Onay.

Bromley has already out-sourced some services to Capita and Liberata and their intention is to go from 4,000 staff directly employed to just 300. Private outsourcing companies can then employ staff on much reduced pay and terms and conditions.

Race to the bottom

“We believe this cost-cutting exercise won’t benefit the people of Bromley, as this is a race to the bottom in terms of quality and service-delivered,” said Onay.

“We have offered to discuss a ‘procurement strategy’ to safeguard service quality, but the council has refused,” he added.

In a statement issued by the Labour group they claim that Capita and Liberata are already struggling to do what they have been contracted to do for the agreed price, and are missing numerous performance targets.

“People have been evicted from their homes and forced to sleep on the streets because the benefits that they’re entitled to have not been correctly processed,” a Labour spokesperson said.

“Another contractor has been found to be employing illegal immigrants. Many roads and pathways are not being cleaned as they should be. We believe that Unite’s proposal for a procurement strategy deserved proper consideration and not instant dismissal,” they added.

“Unite’s strategy would place an emphasis on quality rather than cost-cutting. The council’s proposals will hit the most vulnerable members of the community.

“There is no time left to lose – the council is arrogantly pushing ahead and destroying services. This is why we must draw a line in the sand against privatisation and austerity in local government,” added Onay.