North London on strike: our #J10 reports

Updated: 10:30 pm

As the day goes on we hope to bring you more reports, photos and comments on today’s industrial action where around one million people across the country are thought to be on strike.

Send us your pictures and reports from the strike in North London. You can either send it to office@northlondonstar.org.uk or submit a comment below. Thanks to everyone who has sent or is sending us their comments or pictures from the day!

Click the images to enlarge.

Charlie (Unison) reports: Very lively picket line at Camden Repairs building depot in Kentish  town that started at 6:30am. There were craft workers and office staff from both Unison and GMB on the picket line – about 15 in total.

Although we didn’t have The TUC leader visit as other picket lines did in Camden, we did have a welcome visit from the Camden Green Party councillor, Sian Berry, who came to express her support before joining the march to Trafalgar Square.

Many lorries decided they would turn back faced with picket lines. Sadly a few individuals crossed the picket lines but we would have sent a big message that Public sector workers are fighting back and fighting against the running down of the public sector and fighting to protect it.

 

Phil from Haringey reports: Kyri, Mireia and I went to visit Haringey council workers and Unison members at Alexandra Road, Wood Green, who had pickets placed on both building entrances. Many were rallied outside Haringey Civic Centre.

Alexandra House: To begin with we spoke with Nicky and Ose, they both were handing out Unison leaflets as well as challenging workers who they had clearly spoken to about striking.

There was a minimum of one and a maximum of three pickets, the low numbers were made up (only ever so slightly) by union officials, who did well to generate an atmosphere among passer-by’s – honk your horn and show support!

One picket, Maggie, began to tell us that the strike had attempted to involve younger members but with so many high paid contractors working in the building, as well as agency staff, she recognised that it’s getting very difficult. Maggie knew about the umbrella company scams and thought that the contractors were ‘employed’ under an umbrella. We began discussing how the nature of ‘employment’ is changing under this Government.

 

Social workers: The social workers were out too; the picket line was made up of three Unison members. Two pickets worked in maintaining and raising funds for parks in Haringey – the discussion was based around park funding, infrastructure and demolitions.

Concerning funding, I mentioned what was happening to St Anne’s hospital and it’s sell off, Beverley said that “we were told that the investors, under section 106, would have to invest into Chestnut Community Park”. We moved onto speak about how different companies and huge corporations (such as Tottenham Hotspurs) tended to negotiate with the council concerning investment and development. The bigger you are the less you have to put in, because you can just threaten to relocate. Beverley told us that one ‘legendary’ chicken shop, Chicken King, has been campaigning to stay open and in business. I found this quote from the owner of Chicken King:

“We never had any intention of selling to Spurs or moving from Tottenham,” Tryfonos says. “Now Spurs are staying, we are being bullied out of our property. As businesses we have come together and we are calling on the council to include and involve us in the plans to improve this area, not drive us out.” 

Big business has a responsibility to improve the area is absolutely right!  We finished by talking about some park I Haringey seem to NOT include teenagers in their plans. Some friends groups (groups which liaise with the council) have refused huts or other infrastructure (such as Skate Parks) as it may bring ‘the wrong attention’. One picket mentioned that in Camden, one park seems to of accommodated very well for the pensioner community, right through to teenagers and young children.

 

Rally outside Haringey Civic Centre: Around 15 pickets were outside the Civic Centre. One picket, Ken, was furious about the proposed cut in his working hours: “how can I live and raise my family if I get my hours cut. My whole life is set up around my work.” He was joined by other pickets who agreed.

The situation is very serious with the cost of living crisis continuing to spiral out of control. I hope I will be re-visiting these people soon, on the picket line or otherwise, I may see them at the TUC March and Rally

 

Jim from Camden reports: I went to the PCS picket line outside the British Library. There was a good turnout there although some people had gone in to work. Chatting to one picket he said the day was going well. He loved working at the British Library but backed the strike because it was about human dignity. He was particularly concerned about the way PCS members in job centres were being forced to implement policies designed to humiliate the poor and thought a stronger union could take more action to protect ‘service users’ as well as the workforce.

Another picket said the strike was going well but was concerned about a series of one day actions that would grind down the union activists without giving the employers anything to worry about. He thought that while the one day strike was probably the only way to get coordinated action across unions the strikes needed to be longer to show employers they were serious.

There was a rally outside the Town Hall joining a very well attended picket line there of two or three dozen pickets. FBU, Unison and PCS members came together to listen to a few brief speeches and then set off in a feeder march to the larger all London demonstration.

Paul Embery, the FBU’s London regional secretary, said there concerns were about making fire fighters work later in life. It was both “dangerous and wrong” to force firefighters to work on the front line until they were 60, that’s if they weren’t sacked for failing to meet fitness standards as they get older. He thought this was “a disgraceful way to treat emergency workers.”

Heather Wakefield, a union negotiator, pointed out how local government pay was falling drastically since this government had got in.

She also said that “16% of local government workers and school workers do unpaid overtime to keep vital services going. We want our members to be properly valued for what they do – which doesn’t mean the minimum wage but a decent living wage for everyone.”

Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader, gave her party’s official backing to the strikes. She said the government “hate the public services” and want to “privatise them” in order to “make money for their mates”.

She also called for the union laws to be reformed “to make unions stronger. Strong unions are good for the economy and tackle inequality.”

George Binette of Camden Unison (who we interviewed yesterday) gave a roaring speech to stir the crowd. He called for the “10th of July not to be the end of the story but the beginning of a new story against austerity that the Labour Party is all too keen to accept. We need to send a message not just to George Osborne and the Orange Order of the Lib Dems  but also to Ed Balls and Ed Miliband – we’ve had enough and we’re not going to take anymore!”

 

 

 

 

 

Send us your pictures and reports from the strike in North London. You can either send it to office@northlondonstar.org.uk or submit a comment below. Thanks to everyone who has sent or is sending us their comments or pictures from the day!

Click the images to enlarge.