News

Three school cleaners whose jobs were outsourced to a private cleaning company are now on their 8th week of strike action after losing wage rates, sick pay and holiday pay following a transfer of their employment. They are employed by a local cleaning company `C and D`who took over the contract from the local authority in West Yorkshire, UK. The company has refused to meet with the cleaners' trade union, UNISON, and have refused to pay back any of the lost terms unless the local authority pays for it by inreasing the money in the contract for them.

Rather than lie down and accept this injustice, the 3 women are at the centre of a dispute that symbolises all the iniquities of the `race to the bottom` that are part of a privatisation process. The cutting of costs through the cutting the pay of already low paid workers is too often the default outcome of privatisation of public services. They have attracted lots of local support. This area is one that has been hard hit by government austerity policies and by the vast number of mine closures since the end of the Great Miners Strike in 1984/85. It is now a low wage area with high unemployment. The 3 cleaners Lesley Leake, Maris Hall and Karen McGee have all show great determination but are also driven by the fear of what this means for their families.

`I would go home crying because it felt like we were being treated so unfairly and I didnt know how I was going to pay the bills or the mortgage` said Lesley to The Guardian.

You can read more about the dispute on their Facebook Page `Support the Kinsley School Cleaners` including the BBC and The Guardian reports

UNI Property Services fully supports these three women and their brave campaign and urges affiliates to use the Facebook page to contact them here.