UNITE: Striking Southampton workers to make presence felt at LGA conference
Tuesday, 28 June 2011 5:13 PM
Venue: Demonstration at Birmingham International Conference Centre Date and time: 29 June, 8.30am to 11.00am
Dozens of council workers from Southampton will head to Birmingham tomorrow (Wednesday 29 June ) to take their "drop the deadline" plea to the deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
The visit is also a desperate bid to persuade the council leader, Royston Smith - who is threatening to sack them on July 11 unless all 4300 workers sign up to inferior contracts and pay cuts - to meet them.
Unions , Unite and Unison have condemned the Southampton leadership for failing to treat talks seriously, and Royston Smith in particular for failing to invest time and effort in helping the talks progress.
The workers will be wearing Royston Smith "masks" and carrying posters bearing an image of the council leader with the message "Wanted: for evading talks".
Their demonstration comes as Unite gave notice today (Tuesday) of a further seven days' strike action at the council's street cleansing operation meaning strike action at the service will continue for 14 days consecutive days.
This is in addition to the notice given of further action short of strike in waste and recycling where the workforce will refuse to work alongside agency workers on all waste collection and will refuse to use “5 ways” hire vehicles for waste collection so preventing that company profitting from breaking the strike action.
Speaking ahead of the Birmingham demo, Ian Woodland, Unite regional officer, said: "If Royston Smith won't come to us then we will head to him. He may be running from his workforce but he certainly cannot hide from the fact that his attempts to hammer them into submission is going very wrong.
"We are taking our message to the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. He needs to understand that workers are not prepared to pay the price for the banks' failures. It simply is not fair to expect low-waged workers to give up their terms and conditions while the banking elite get off scot free.
"We are now entering the fourth week of strike action at the council and workers are determined to stay out until they get a fairer deal. They are to be congratulated for taking this determined stand.
"If Royston Smith truly wants peace, then all he has to do is drop his dreadful deadline. This would set the tone for further talks and reassure workers that they will not be terrified out of their existing jobs."
ENDS
For further information, please contact Ian Woodland on 07770 704 480 or the Unite press office on 0203 371 2065
Newsletter sign up