{"id":3766,"date":"2015-04-20T14:41:44","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T13:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3766"},"modified":"2015-04-20T16:28:47","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T15:28:47","slug":"listen-to-strategy-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3766","title":{"rendered":"Listen to strategy plea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Workers at Tory controlled Bromley council have voted by 87 per cent in favour of a second round of strike action against the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plans for mass privatisation of services.<\/p>\n

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The selected strike dates, from April 27 to May 19, will hit libraries, parks and passenger services.<\/p>\n

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Despite having \u00c2\u0141130m in reserves, the council is privatising the bulk of its services, including services aimed at vulnerable members of the community.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe previous two days of strike action earlier this month led to libraries shutting, the care centre closing and the passenger services not running,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Onay Kasab, Unite regional official.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile this was inconvenient to local people, the bigger picture is that if we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Onay added.<\/p>\n

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The council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour group has accused the Conservative-dominated authority of being \u00e2\u20ac\u015bopenly committed to being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098commissioning council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and to reducing the number of direct council employees from 4,000 to just 300.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Onay Kasab said that the Labour analysis of what is happening in Bromley regarding privatisation and the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098race to the bottom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in terms of services, and pay and conditions was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098spot on\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Onay.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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Race to the bottom<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe believe this cost-cutting exercise won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t benefit the people of Bromley, as this is a race to the bottom in terms of quality and service-delivered,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Onay.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have offered to discuss a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098procurement strategy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to safeguard service quality, but the council has refused,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople have been evicted from their homes and forced to sleep on the streets because the benefits that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re entitled to have not been correctly processed,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 a Labour spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnother 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal for a procurement strategy deserved proper consideration and not instant dismissal,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 they added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strategy would place an emphasis on quality rather than cost-cutting. The council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposals will hit the most vulnerable members of the community.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Onay.<\/p>\n

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Workers at Tory controlled Bromley council have voted by 87 per cent in favour of a second round of strike action against the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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 \u00c2\u0141130m in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[76,277,175],"wps_subtitle":"Bromley workers strike against austerity in local government","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3766"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3776,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions\/3776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}