RESIST PRIVATISATION:
No Sell-out of Environmental Services
The privatisation story
so far...
Bin there, Won That
Edinburgh Council plan to sell off
essential services to private
companies. Service quality,
working conditions, wages and jobs
will all be under attack if we let this
go through.
The ‘Integrated Facilities
Management’, ‘Corporate &
Transactional Services’ and
‘Environmental’ packages group
different services into convenient
grab-bags for companies to bid for.
Read on to find out why some think
that cleansing & waste services, who
have been taking industrial action
for an incredible 2 years are being
set up and sold out.
As Edinburgh Council looks to
decimate its environmental services
Muckraker looks at examples from
across the UK where workers have
fought back… and won.
In 2001 the private company SITA,
operating Brighton refuse collection
and street cleaning, imposed
oppressive new working conditions.
The workers refused to comply –
and were immediately all sacked.
But the workers didn't fold – instead
they occupied their depot, and
prepared to defend it against any
police attack.
With support from local activists
workers blockaded scab bin lorries
A number of employees within Refuse
Collection, Street Cleansing, Gardening
and Fleet Services have suggested that
the Environment Package is being
offered ‘as a sacrificial Lamb’ by trade
union officials. Here is one council
worker's view.
We know from reliable sources that
‘Trade Union Side Lead Negotiator’,
Peter Hunter, has for a while been
privately stating that a deal had been
done, accepting privatisation of the
Refuse Collection and the Environment
Package. This deal would safeguard
Integrated Facilities Management, as
well as Corporate & Transactional
Services. This may well be a personal or
professional opinion or it could be that
keeping the other two office based
Inside this issue:
• What does Privatisation Mean?
• UK Strikes Against Cuts
• Workers Winning
• Southern Cross: Big bucks from
old folks
• Ways you can fight back
packages is more important to UNISON
than keeping the manual side.
Adding to this the fact that Unite the
Union officials are just not up to the task
and the GMB are pretty much none
existent within Edinburgh Council
membership wise, it means that if the
workforce sit back and leave it up to the
WALK OUT &
DEMONSTRATE
AT THE COUNCIL
MEETING TO DECIDE ON
PRIVATISATION
(as we go to press this is set
for Thursday 27th October)
The Edinburgh Muckraker
continued on page 2
hierarchy of recognised trade unions
the ‘Environmental Services’ will
definitely be ‘PRIVATISED’.
Picking up after union
officials
We are also told by the recognised
trade unions that the council have
not followed the ‘statutory’ process
they should have. Why the Trade
Unions do not raise some form of
legal challenge to the Council not
adhering to a ‘statutory’ process is
bewildering to say the least.
Due to the above and the many,
many other recent failings (e.g. last
years ‘Pay Negotiations’, the entire
‘Modernising Pay’ situation, then the
‘Future State’ detriments, to name
[email protected]
c/o 17 West Montgomery Place, EH7 5HA
phone: 557 6242
continued inside
Packaged up & soldcontinued
out?
from front page
but a few) a number of employees
within Refuse Collection and Street
Cleansing and other sections within
the
‘Environmenta
l Package’,
have decided
to take
matters into
their own
hands.
Refuse
Collection
employees
have sought representation from a
private lawyer to fight the council on
issues that Unite the Union have
failed to address and there is also talk
of a mass walk out of staff (along
with Street Cleansing & Gardeners)
on the day Edinburgh councillors will
make the decision whether to
privatise the Environmental Service.
Service: To Boldly Go
Down the Drain
At a recent Street Cleansing
workplace meeting with Enterprise,
they admitted that there would be
cuts to staff numbers and vehicles.
Staff were not fooled by the promise
of stopping the unpopular 9pm
finishing time within Street Cleansing and
saw it for what it was, a saving of £2000
per head. In theory staff being transferred
to a private
company
should have
their pay and
conditions
protected by
TUPE
legislation.
However this
does not offer
genuine
protection as 'a new employer may seek
changes for economic, technical or
organisational reasons’. This means that
once a new company takes on the
workforce it can begin to cut wages or
change working conditions on day 1, after
the transfer from the council.
Walkout
Remember that this is not a fight for a pay
rise or to keep public holidays or annual
leave or to protect pensions or any other
terms of condition we have, these are all
important and can be fought after we fight
privatisation. This is a fight against
privatisation and is a fight to keep control
of the services with the people of
Edinburgh and if you are an employee it is
simply a fight to keep your job.
What can Employees within the Services to be PRIVATISED Do?
- Do not wait on the trade unions to battle for you, if you do your
service will be PRIVATISED.
- Contact your Local Councillor, especially the LibDems, SNP &
Conservative (as Labour & Greens are to vote against privatisation),
telling them either personally at surgeries or by letter, email simply
that if they vote for PRIVATISATION you will not vote for them in the
local elections early next year.
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/councillors or 0131 200 2000
- Ask family, friends, work colleagues etc. to sign the petition.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ourcitynotforsale/
- Attend any NO to PRIVATISATION meeting arranged.
- If there’s a walk out when the council meet to decide on privatisation,
be a member of an empowered workforce and leave work to
demonstrate on the 27th October.
Jargon Watch:
TUPE — Transfer of Undertakings, Protection of Employment, the law about
when a new employer can change employees' pay & conditions.
The Edinburgh Muckraker
Bin there,
Won That
contd from front page
and persuaded employment
agency workers not to scab.
So effective was this direct
action that after 4 days
occupation, the workers won
their struggle. The Council were
forced to terminate the private
contract and bring the service
back in-house, while re-instating
all the workers who had been
sacked.
More recently refuse workers in
Leeds faced a much longer
battle against pay cuts
amounting to £5k per year. On
the 5th September 2009 refuse
collectors walked out on strike
after 70% voted in favour of
action. This would not be a
token one day effort but all out
strike. Leeds Council
confidently predicted that the
workers would crumble within 2
weeks. They didn’t.
Then they used the media to try
and eradicate public support for
the bin men accusing them of
being “lazy” and “putting
vulnerable people at risk” This
failed. Massive public support
saw local residents join picket
lines and donate cash to the
strikers.
Growing increasingly desperate
the Lib Dem authority
threatened the workers with
privatisation and brought in an
army of scabs to do the work,
confidently assuring residents
their rubbish would now be
collected. The workers would
not be intimidated and held out
as private agency staff failed to
cope with the workload.
After 11 weeks of all out strike
action the Council crumbled and
the 500 workers marched back
to work having won complete
victory against the planned pay
cuts.
[email protected]
c/o 17 West Montgomery Place, EH7 5HA
phone: 557 6242
Bin Latest
An update from inside the refuse
collection department.
On 19 August refuse collection workers
voted to call off their 2-year overtime
ban opposing wage cuts and worse
conditions. But the workers are
continuing the work to rule, which is
mainly about strictly following health
and safety procedures. The meeting was
poorly advertised, with only 30-40
workers present.
In April, 150-200 refuse collection
workers had held a mass meeting and
80-90% voted in favour of a strike
ballot. However the Unite union did
nothing to implement the ballot. At the
same meeting workers voted to restart
the unofficial Saturday pickets against
scabs breaking the overtime ban,
mainly operating out of the Craigmillar
depot.
Nearly 50 workers have independently
taken the Council to Employment
Tribunals, to maintain their current
wages and conditions. The Tribunals
are due to restart in early October.
Workers are deeply frustrated with the
union. A recent branch meeting voted
overwhelmingly to remove Unite
convener Stephen McGregor, as the
workers felt he was not giving them any
information and they had no confidence
in him, he was not defending the
workers' rights. However McGregor
refused to step down, to the workers'
anger.
We say: The need for independent
workers' organisation is clear.
Southampton Strikes Back
social care workers among others. A
Last month workers in Southampton
protest march through the town
carried out a week of targeted strike
attracted hundreds of workers,
action against brutal cuts imposed by
ending by protesting outside the
the local council.
local guildhall during a meeting of
The strikes follow months of anti-cuts
the council. Despite significant
action by locals, but the immediate
disruption to the life of the town,
cause of the dispute was the council’s
including festering piles of rubbish
demand for workers to take a pay cut
in the streets, most workers reported
and accept hundreds of job losses.
that support from locals remained
When these demands were rejected by
strong.
the workers’
You can donate to the
While most of
unions, the council
announced that the Southampton workers strike fund Southampton's
via a cheque, payable to
workers have had to
entire workforce
‘UNISON
South
East
region’
and
sign the new
was sacked clearly marked ‘Southampton contracts, under
saying that any
protest, there are still
Dispute Hardship Fund’
worker who
groups of workers
reused to sign the
Send to:
who have not who
new contracts the
UNISON South East region, now face the prospect
council had drawn
Ranger House, Walnut Tree
of lockouts, and the
up would lose
Close,
Guildford
GU1
4UL
struggle isn’t over
their job. At the
yet. Unite and
same time, a
Unison, two unions associated with
leaked document showed that 1200
the week of action, say they are
workers, a quarter of the workforce,
pursuing legal action on the grounds
would be laid off over the next few
of unfair dismissal of council staff.
years anyway. The response from said
As we go to press, a one day strike
workforce was, unsurprisingly, furious.
by social workers has been extended
Workers from across the public sector
to a full seven days, continuing into
in Southampton took part in the strikes,
the beginning of August, to coincide
which were planned to cause maximum
with strikes by workers in other
disruption to the running of local
sectors including adoption, fostering
government. Those stopping work
and childcare over the next few days.
included binmen, health inspectors,
parking wardens, street sweepers,
childcare workers, library workers and
UK STRIKES AGAINST CUTS
On the 30th June, 30,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union in Scotland joined three quarters of a
million public sector workers across the UK in striking over pensions and cuts.
This was a massive step in fighting back against Government attempts to decimate the
welfare state but anti-cuts activists, public sector workers and service users are calling for
further, more widespread action.
Union branches acrosss the country, including Unison's 9,000 strong Edinburgh branch,
have
voted to call on the TUC to coordinate a general strike. It looks like there is a
PCS pickets outside St. Andrews
House
possibility of mass joint strike action taking place in October if union leaders respond to the
calls of their membership and those that use public services.
But we can't wait for union officials to start action – we have to make links now between workers & service users.
People from different workplaces could meet to discuss their struggles, to find ways to support each other. No group and
no person should be left to struggle alone. On 30 June claimants from Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty joined the
Jobcentre workers picket at High Riggs, and Black Triangle disability rights group members joined the pickets at the
Scottish Government.
The Edinburgh Muckraker
[email protected]
c/o 17 West Montgomery Place, EH7 5HA
phone: 557 6242
THE COLLAPSE OF
SOUTHERN CROSS
Toxic!
The firms who want
Edinburgh’s rubbish
have dirty pasts
Privatisation means elderly care comes a poor
second to profits for hedge fund speculators
Edinburgh Support Workers’
Action Network (SWAN) looks
at the disastrous effects of
privatisation on the care of our
elderly and speaks to a worker
at a Southern Cross home in
Edinburgh
When the UK's biggest private
care home provider Southern
Cross announced one Monday
that it could no longer afford to
pay rent for its care homes and
would cease operations it blamed
falling local authority funding
and rising rent prices. However,
a closer look at the causes
demonstrates the danger of
allowing private companies to
run essential public services.
Southern Cross, whose 750 care
homes receive substantial
funding from the tax payer, was
purchased by US private-equity
firm Blackstone in 2004.
Blackstone floated the company
on the stock market, making
£630 million in the process, and
proceeded to strip its most
profitable assets, making another
£1 billion by selling off property
belonging to the company.
Southern Cross then continued to
provide services by renting the
care homes it previously owned.
Blackstone sold its shares in
Southern Cross in 2008 making a
final £1 billion in profit and
leaving behind a company
crippled by the rising cost of
rents.
Now Southern Cross has
announced it cannot afford to pay
its rent bill and the company will
fold. A few private investors
have made billions, while the
31,000 elderly residents of
Southern Cross' care homes face
an uncertain future.
SWAN spoke to a care worker employed
by Southern Cross who gave a worrying
description of care standards at the private
company;
“Very little of the profit the home made
went towards funding the home as
Southern Cross were clearly only
interested in making money and didn’t
seem to know or care about giving
appropriate care”.
The care worker also informed us that
very little had been communicated to
residents or staff at the care home about
their precarious future;
“I was told by the administrator that
he had heard something but had been
forbidden to tell us anything. As far as
I know residents haven’t been told
anything about what will happen to the
home”.
The Council and the landlord at this home
are now searching for a new provider to
deliver the service.
This is a particularly disturbing example
of what happens when vital public
services are put in the hands of private
companies; public money generates huge
profits for investors while leaving serviceusers exposed and vulnerable and the
taxpayer yet again to foot the inevitable
bill of cleaning up the mess that is left
behind.
• www.swanedinburgh.org.uk
• [email protected]
SNP and Lib Dem run the council.
Neither said they would privatise
services, but now City of Edinburgh
Council wants to push through the
largest privatisation of council
services in Scottish history. Previous
bidder, Veolia, was turned down in
part due to their culpability for the
release of toxic fumes which caused
staff to need medical treatment. Yet
the £1 billion privatisation plan still
looks like it could go toxic.
Two bidders are still in the running,
Kier Group and Enterprise, despite
concealing criminal convictions for
fatal workplace accidents, even
when given the chance to ‘come
clean’. Several of the firms have
been issued with fines for illegal
price-fixing in public sector
contracts. Kier Group receiving the
largest fine, originally amounting to
£17.9m. Yet elected councillors
were never informed of this.
There are 3 significant reasons why
there needs to be public consultation
before preferred bidders are
announced. The sheer scale of the
privatisation, effecting 17 services
will affect every citizen. The gross
mismanagement of the Trams
project and the social care tender
has led to a reputational crisis for
the Council. The council have
already failed to meet legal
obligations in the tender process.
Very Enterprising, Very Corrupt
The Council have yet to decide on the privatisation of services, they
say. Why then did a BT Telecom engineer turn up at the Craigmillar
cleansing/ refuse collection depot on 11 August to install a new phone
line for the private company Enterprise? The very same company who
are bidding for the Environmental Services contract.
The manager sent the engineer packing, explaining the decision on
privatisation had not yet been made.
But who from the Council authorised this?
The Edinburgh Muckraker
[email protected]
c/o 17 West Montgomery Place, EH7 5HA
phone: 557 6242