The Workers Party of Britain denounces Tower Hamlets Labour council for its attempt to sack all 4,000 of its workers and rehire only those who are prepared to accept a vastly inferior contract, laughably dubbed ‘Tower Rewards’.
Download and print our leaflet to take in support of strikers on the picket line.
The new contract, as well as imposing cuts on things like travel allowances and out-of-hours pay, also includes drastic cuts to severance pay, kicking open the door to cut-rate redundancies a little further down the line.
The Labour council has been trying over the past year and a half to cram this rubbish new contract down workers’ throats. Workers have been eager to resist and were to have been called out on strike on 24 March this year. Sadly, Unison pulled the strike at the last moment, believing a promise from management that the question of the new contract would be shelved until the covid crisis was over.
Once the strike was called off and the momentum was lost, however, the council promptly changed its tune and announced that the inferior contracts would be forcibly imposed on 6 July.
Council workers, who include social workers, children’s services workers, environmental health workers, benefits office workers and other key workers whose services to the community during the health emergency have been vital, are fed up with the shabby treatment they are getting from this Labour council and this time are striking for real, on 3, 6 and 7 July, with further strikes planned for 15, 16 and 17 July.
The Workers Party of Britain salutes the strikers, and in particular commends the action of Tower Hamlets binmen in refusing to cross picket lines.
More details of dates and picket lines from the strikers’ union website.
