Caretakers Strike
Socialist Press1977 1977-11-16Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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London members of the Society of Civil and Public The four week strike by GLC caretakers was called off on Friday 11 November, not by a vote of the caretakers but by the instruction of the NUPE Disputes Committee.
Many of the men were extremely bitter about this. They were also angry at the role of Divisional Officer H. McCartney and their own strike leaders who came from negotiations at County Hall having agreed to a miserable £71.67 gross and 27 hours pay for dealing with four weeks backlog of work.
This is to be paid over the PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report next three weeks.
Even this amount had to be squeezed out of the Tories who are pushing ahead with their plans to dismantle the public housing sector and all associated services.
It was to fight these cutbacks that the caretakers took their action under severe provocation.
The dispute began on the Ranwell Estate in East London when one caretaker and a relief porter were left to run an estate normally requiring seven men.
These men refused to be responsible for implementing this cut.
The union involved, the Ams. atriko for the restoration of National Union of Public Employees, stated that their members were subsequently locked out.
Approximately 600 GLC caretakers, •all NUPE members, joined the action and held meetings on many of the estates to explain their case to the tenants.
In 1970 the GLC employed 1390 caretakers-which was nowhere near adequate. But today there are only 1287 GLC caretakers and the council insists that it will not spend the money on employing more.
Moreover, all weekend overtime is to be stopped in a further drive to worsen the service for tenants.
This will also mean a drastic cut in wages for caretakers who are on a basic £32 per week and rely on the extra to get by.
Mass lobby
Councillor Ken Livingstone stressed that it was not good enough to blame everything on the Tories who had been in since May.
He called for a mass lobby of tenants and caretakers at the next GLC on Tuesday to stop the Tories getting into County Hall.
'The meeting voted to support this lobby and the caretakers' action and to demand a rent rebate for the failure of the GLC to provide their services.
The bitterness of many caretakers has led some to talk of leaving the union. This offers no answer at all.
The need is to fight for a impinlad lasdarchin TO