Afternoon all merry holly mistletoe reindeer red nose Santa loving people, tis the season to give, eat and give

and for everyone not celebrating Christmas or Yule or Eid or anything, there’s always buy one get one free festive chocolates to devour whilst watching trash tv and the fireworks well into the new year.

What a perfect way to start the new year ey, fat, a hole in your bank account, severely diabetic and well… very merry, lol.

 

Anyways, I haven’t written for a while, two reasons, and sheer laziness and number two, I was recovering from hat horrible bacterial colonisation in my body otherwise known as the great cold.

Today, I spent a chunk of my day protesting for cleaners at my work place, SOAS. I don’t know if everyone is aware, but SOAS cleaners and some at Birkbeck and other academic institutions get paid the minimum wage and do not get paid when they are sick or on annual leave. This is absolutely disgusting. Many are Spanish men in their thirties, who have moved to London with hopes of providing more for their families, but instead, they are faced with poor wages and absolute inequality in terms of how they are seen alongside other staff and their wage band is a reflection of that. Its disgusting. These cleaners deserve a London living wage at least which is realistic to what is required for these men with families. The protests have been occurring throughout the year with an overall intention to overthrow the ludicrous current pay that the governing bodies have applied and replace them with wages that are fairer to these cleaners who work longer hours then the admin staff and yet get paid more, and on top, are not even given basic staff privileges that are offered to everyone else across the board. It’s disgraceful and I think, SOAS as a place of equality, egalitarianism and diversity needs to fix up and brush before these things let their image down.

 

The cleaning service is contracted out to a private company called Ocean Contract Cleaning that employs workers on the minimum wage so its isn’t all SOAS’s fault/ Many of the cleaners had not received a contract and some of them had been told that their hours would be reduced.

Following the protest, the company has now agreed to SOME of the cleaners’ demands. Activists (us) are celebrating this victory and plan to increase the pressure in the new year for SOAS to guarantee cleaners £7.05 per hour, sick pay, holiday entitlement and union rights. Just as they deserve. J

http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=9989 (background information on the approach the government is taking)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSPl9n792jw (the you tube demo of the one that took place earlier in the year)

 

 

Post by Mushroom