BROMLEY
council workers who are members of the giant union Unite last week urged local
residents to join them in a mass rally against privatisation plans this
Saturday 13th June at Norman Park, Bromley in south-east London.
The
Conservative-run council’s mission to farm out most of its services to private
companies, reducing the number of council employees from 4,000 to 300 is also
being challenged by Unite members with a third wave of strikes.
With
14 of the council’s libraries among the services earmarked for privatisation,
Bromley-based children’s author Sam Gayton said: “Libraries have given me so
much – my imagination, my love of books, and my future career.
“I
am so grateful to them, and so angry that they might be taken away from future
generations. That is why I will be marching on Saturday 13th June. That is why
I am standing up for Bromley public services."
Unite
regional officer Onay Kasab, said: “Bromley council’s mission to shrink local
services to vanishing point will be challenged every step of the way. We will
not stand by and let Bromley council’s blinkered right-wing ideology destroy
the services that generations of Bromley residents have depended on.
“We
are urging Bromley residents to join the march on Saturday to support striking
staff in their fight to stop the wholesale outsourcing of their services – the
very future of their local services depends on it.”
In
addition to the march, Unite members will be striking from 10th-20th June in a
series of selective strikes. Unite members at adult services and transport
workers will strike from 10th-15th June. Library staff will be on strike from
13th-20th June. Council workers will strike on 16th June.
Unite
members voted by 87 per cent to take strike action in protest over the mass
privatisation programme, cuts to pay and conditions and the withdrawal of
facility time from the Unite trade union representative.
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