UK: Janitors and IT workers at Glasgow City Council face common struggle
By
Minnie Watson
7 January 2017
Janitors and IT staff at Glasgow City Council (GCC) are involved in hard fought and bitter disputes with the Labour Party-run authority.
Janitors employed by Cordia, an arm’s length organisation of GCC set up to run support and caring services, have been taking industrial action since January 2016. Over the course of 2016, they have taken around 28 days of strike action of between one to five days in length along with work to rules. The yearlong dispute was initially regarding Working Context and Demand Payments–annual payments of between £500 and £1,000, for heavy lifting and removing dangerous materials from playgrounds.
The strike is also now about pay and threatened job losses. Cordia announced a pilot scheme in November last year that would reduce from six to four the number of janitors covering six pilot schools. The scheme will begin next month, with a view to cutting 25 percent of janitors across the city.
In November last year, specialist IT workers employed by GCC voted by 95 percent for a strike against privatisation plans. The IT workers have been involved in staggered strike action through November and December, with the dispute predicted to continue throughout the winter. The strike was provoked when GCC’s Executive Committee voted in favour of a proposal to privatise the council’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services.
Both groups of workers are members of the Unison trade union, which is working to ensure that they remain divided. To date only one poorly-advertised joint protest has been called outside Glasgow City Chambers–headquarters of Glasgow City Council.
Unison is working to ensure that both the janitors’ and IT…