Branch Secretary : info@housingworkers.org.uk
  

 

The Unite Housing Workers Branch (LE1111)

You should receive monthly emails with notice of branch meetings and other important updates. If you do not receive them, please see here for tips

 

Branch AGM Saturday 23rd March

All members invited! Full details here

 

 

Sanctuary housing maintenance workers step up action

 

Management agree ACAS talks

 

Members at Sanctuary Housing delivered rock solid strike action and followed that up by announcing escalation with further strikes starting on March 20th.  

 

 

Pickets were well attended, and strikers were moved by expressions of support and donations from tenants. Given Sanctuary’s refusal to recognise Unite the fact that they have now accepted an invitation from the government conciliation service, ACAS, to talks marks a significant step forward.

 

 

They are striking for union recognition, decent pay and for fair working time arrangements.

 

Further action

 

Unite rep Charles Christodoulou writes:

 

It was raining hard as I approached the picket line at 7.10am. Originally, I thought: ‘There’s no one here.’ I could see our   Unite branch chair, Paul, standing, waiting… and then they started to flock in. Until we were at 27!

 

I thought to myself: ‘We are ready now’. About half an hour in, our senior management came towards us with a shocked face. They didn’t expect so many, raising our morale. 

 

We were here to fight for recognition of our union, and also our pay rise. We received a pay cut last year – RPI inflation was at 11.4%, we received 4%. We now know we have been given 4% again, a further pay cut. And now we are also seeking parity with the office staff for our holidays and sickness benefits.

 

We were contacted by workers in Canterbury asking to join the union. Our colleagues in Essex were asked by management to cover some of our jobs, and they asked: ‘Why do we have to cover London jobs?’ When they were told it was because we are striking, they refused to cross our picket line, and this lifted all our spirits.

 

We have now given notice for further action which will start on 20 March, a further week split over two weeks, and I see this as an opportunity to engage with the areas that have approached us. We can join them up to the union. This year’s campaign for pay will be with our brothers and sisters in Ely, Canterbury, Essex, Rochford and Oxfordshire. I hope with the support of Unite!

 

Support pledged

 

Steve O’Donnell, London and Eastern Regional Secretary of Unite, joined the picket and pledged support for the strike. Members of the branch distributed leaflets on some Sanctuary estates before the strike explaining the issues. Tenants came out of their homes to tell leaflitters how much they supported the workers. On the picket line tenants brought money and some home-baked cakes.

 

 

New members have been joining Unite around the country. We have also had interest from housing maintenance workers in other housing associations; many have similar issues to those in the London Sanctuary maintenance team. Contact us on info@housingworkers.org.uk if you want to get organised.

 

 

We will discuss all this at our branch agm on Saturday March 23rd – all members welcome. The next strike days are Wednesday 20th March, Thursday 21st, Friday 22nd and then Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th.

 

 

Read more about Unite in Sanctuary here

 

Find pickets, strike activities and how to help here

 

11th March 2024

 

 

 

 

We can’t let the government weaken the unions

 

Politicisation of strikes is what is motivating anti-union legislation.

 

Forty years ago, 14 civil servants working in the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) lost their jobs for being members of a trade union.

 

In 1984 Margaret Thatcher enforced a ban on union membership at GCHQ. She claimed that it wasn’t possible for someone to be both a trade unionist and faithful to the security of their country. It took 13 years for the ban to be reversed.

 

Fundamental liberties

 

This weekend the union movement will gather in Cheltenham on the anniversary of those events, not just to pay tribute to those few who chose principle over expedience, but to stand squarely against the attacks occurring today on our fundamental liberties.

 

 

I am primarily talking about the government’s so-called Minimum Service Levels regulations which came into force in December. These are intended to deliver two outcomes. First and most importantly for the government, to create a hammer with which to weaponise industrial action for short-term vote grabbing. Second, to deliver what they hope could be a decisive blow against their own citizens’ rights to withdraw their labour, before the Conservatives limp out of office.

 

Collective resolve

 

The plans are unworkable in practice. The regulations themselves are almost irrelevant to the government. Why? Because they are motivated by the politicisation of strikes, not the avoidance of disruption. The more chaotic the better. They see no contradiction between their preaching about democracy on the global stage and attacking the rights of their own citizens at home.

 

 

Whatever happens we will continue to find ways to win for our members. While this may be no more than a passing political weapon for many in government, for us it will be a full-time job. Rather than decapitating the union movement, this attack will only strengthen our collective resolve, build resilience, and generate capacity for action. 

 

We will deliver real support

 

The union movement is ready to fight. I can say with conviction that if tested we will deliver real support. No matter which union or group of workers is targeted first by this pernicious legislation, we will collectively act in their defence. Solidarity will become more than a slogan, whether for clinicians or factory workers.   

 

But it’s not just the right to take industrial action which is under threat. Whether it’s The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 or the Public Order Act 2023, this government has attacked many of the fundamental pillars of any functioning democracy.

 

Pay increases

 

If we take away the school yard politics that has led us here, restricting people’s rights to take a stand, whether at work or elsewhere, risks leaving workers relying on trust, and having to trust in the actions of others to deliver what they need as opposed to being able to rely on their own agency. Over the last couple of years, if we had not had the right to take strike action, millions of workers would have had no recourse but to put faith in employers to give them a proper pay rise. We’ve helped our members win disputes with their employers multiple times, resulting in significant pay increases.

 

Last year, we secured a lump sum payment for workers at Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) Trust worth up to £3,789, after they were denied the one-off lump sum payment awarded to all other NHS workers, because they were on zero-hours contracts. Industrial action also helped us secure a ten per cent pay rise for Brighton and Hove bus workers, and an 11.2 per cent pay increase for Go North East bus workers.

 

Profiteering

 

The same firms that profiteered across our economy would not have paid up. In many cases, we had to take action ourselves. Without that ability, our members would have been more than £430 million worse off and profitable firms nearly a half billion pounds better off.

 

None of this has been inevitable, whether its attacks on fundamental rights or other symbols of our decay. From presiding over our industrial decline, to rising inequality and the breakdown of our public services, political choices have led us here. Britian may not be a global hegemon anymore, but it does not mean we have to resort to culture wars and begging bowls. There are alternatives.

 

Workers and their families

 

That is why it is such a sad indictment of our governing class that they are mired in stories of Covid corruption and tales of cash for access. Desperate for the public to look elsewhere, they dabble in culture wars and look for others to blame. But let’s not forget that Britian can be rebuilt. Not just through politicians but through a new consensus. Forget wedge issues. It’s a new deal, a social contract that we need, a vision for the future underpinned by more democracy, not less. Where our fundamental rights are sacrosanct. Where decent jobs and security are both at the top of the agenda. Where the market has limits and where outcomes matter. Where our public services work and state-led investment is the norm.

 

Our role in this, as trade unions, is not to be political cheerleaders but to be an independent force with the power to make change. Both through action at the place of work and by building an alternative voice within our communities. Such a voice should not be bound by the confines of electoral politics, but based on the interest of the people we represent – workers and their families. That’s how, this weekend, we will honour the 14 men and women who stood up and said no at GCHQ.

 

By Sharon Graham 26 January 2024

 

 

Building a political voice to fight the housing crisis

 

Every week new figures illustrate deepening housing crisis

 

 

As the housing crisis intensifies, how can we fight back? Our branch is campaigning for policies that would make a difference and we engage in the debate on how Unite and other unions can forge an effective political voice.

 

 

Nightmare

 

Just 5% of private rentals are affordable for people on housing benefit according to a report from the IFS this week. New figures come through every week showing the intensifying housing crisis across all tenures.

 

This week housing associations told Inside Housing that rent arrears have now risen to a higher level than during the pandemic.  Numerous commentators have warned that people with mortgages face a ‘nightmare’ as the Bank of England pushes up interest rates.  In London the number of people sleeping rough has risen by 1700 over the last year according to figures from the GLA, also this week.

 

Commercialised

 

More social housing is desperately needed but housing associations are cutting back on development and according to another survey this week just 17% of the new homes they build are social rented rather than more expensive tenures.  When the effects of regeneration schemes, tenure change and right to but are taken into account housing associations have been responsible for a net loss of social housing in recent years. This reflects how they have become increasingly commercialised.

 

Unite housing workers campaigning against the housing crisis

 

As housing workers this crisis hits us hard; we see the consequences on society in our work and below inflation pay increases mean many members live in fear of losing their homes or are poorly housed.

 

Stark contrast

 

Unite has excellent policies to address the housing crisis and our recent branch resolution which will be put to the Unite Policy Conference in July seeks to update and strengthen Unite policy. But they stand in stark contrast to the main political party’s policies and unfortunately that includes Labour.

 

In a speech to the Chartered Institute of Housing conference this week Labour’s Lisa Nandy made it clear that the Labour front bench is startlingly close to the Tories. In her speech she criticised calls for mortgage relief and rent control as prices soar, “Targeted mortgage relief that fuels the inflation crisis is no substitute for stabilising the economy and getting interest rates under control. And when housebuilding is falling off a cliff and buy-to-let landlords are leaving the market, rent controls that cut rents for some will almost certainly leave others homeless. It might be politically easy to put a sticking plaster on our deep-seated problems. But if it’s cowardice that got us here, it is never going to get us out.”

 

Owned by private landlords

 

There is a desperate need for rent control, and it is a policy that has massive support according to polling.  The Thatcher government ended rent control and secure tenancies for the private rented sector, Unite calls for their return. Her comments only make any sense in the absence of a serious programme of council house building.

 

Nandy also committed to retaining right to buy, which continues to erode the very limited supply of social housing, and she rejected calls for a temporary suspension of right to buy. Since the policy was launched in 1980, about two million council homes have been sold. An estimated 40% of them are now owned by private landlords who rent them out at much higher rates. She added that she “agrees with the government” that council should keep receipts from sales to build new homes. But councils say this is nowhere near enough to replace lost social housing.

 

Political representation

 

When Jeremy Corbyn launched his leadership campaign one of the reasons our branch campaigned for Unite to support him was that started from the idea that ‘there can be no solution to the housing crisis that doesn’t start from a mass programme of council house building.’

 

As a branch we will continue to campaign on housing and to support the housing association tenant and resident campaign SHAC.  We also participate in the debate in Unite on political representation.  At the forthcoming rules conference, we have a proposed rule change which would mean that the political committees of the union would no longer require full Labour Party membership as a requirement of sitting on them. Currently, if Labour expels a member, they can no longer sit on these Unite committees – why should Labour choose the makeup of our committees?

 

Party that supports workers

 

For Policy Conference we have an amendment to a resolution which would instruct the union to carry out a referendum of the whole membership on political representation. Should Unite be able to support candidates for Parliament who support Unite policy but are not Labour candidates? Currently the union can only support official Labour by rule.  A possible example would be Jeremy Corbyn. The national party have said that he cannot be a Labour candidate, but local supporters want him to stand. Current rules would suggest that Unite could not support him.

 

There is a crying need for a party that supports the battles of workers defending their living standards and campaigns on a socialist housing policy. We need a serious debate on how we get one. Even a workers list of candidates that support Unite policies would change the terms of debate at the next election.

 

1 July 2023

 

 

 

Housing workers branch housing resolution

 

The housing crisis in Britain has intensified in recent years making the progressive housing policies of Unite still more urgent.  

 

Housing associations (HAs) now manage the majority of social rented homes. In recent years, high-profile HA disrepair cases have highlighted the need for increased investment in the social housing stock. The tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to mould is an example; the coroner’s ruling noted that the landlord had inappropriately sought to blame the tenant’s lifestyle. The cases collectively demonstrate the dangers that flow from an increasingly commercialised HA sector.  

 

For decades the policy of successive UK governments has been to increase the role of private capital in social housing provision. Since the global financial crisis, financial institutions such as the giant asset managers BlackRock, have been expanding into rented housing on a global scale. This has driven further financialisaton of our social housing. A pattern of rising rents, rampant service charges, and shocking disrepairs have resulted.

 

The fastest growing part of the HA sector is now the infiltration of ‘for profit’ associations, effectively subsidiaries of institutions including BlackRock and Blackstone. The current HA business model means that HAs are massively indebted to big finance. As a result, their priority is to appease their bondholders and lenders over meeting housing need. The total debt of English HAs stands at £86.3 billion (2021).  

 

Council housing has also been damaged by a lack of investment. Increasingly, they rely wholly on HAs to provide new social housing within their borough boundaries. In London, 23,000 social rented homes were demolished over the last decade but only 12,050 new social homes were built; a disgraceful net loss of desperately needed social rented homes. Social landlords use such regeneration as a profitable opportunity to move to higher rent tenures, prioritising profit and financial return over social need.  

 

The Grenfell fire tragically illustrated many aspects of the housing crisis, including the impact of cuts, lack of investment, deregulation, and an absence of democratic accountability. The lack of Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP) resulted in 40% of disabled residents dying in the fire. Prior to the tragedy, residents raising safety concerns were threatened with legal action.  

 

These factors combined with construction companies’ criminal negligence led to a tragic end. Yet in the years since, there have been multiple and disgraceful failures in the government response.  

 

Britain remains an outlier in permitting the construction of tall Grenfell-style housing blocks with only one staircase, despite the conflict that this causes in the event of an emergency, with fire fighters forced to use the same staircase as residents. Both the Fire Brigades Union and fire chiefs have called for a ban on single-stairway tower blocks. 

 

Across the housing sector, the cost-of-living crisis is leading to a rise in evictions and homelessness, as provision remains woefully inadequate.  

 

We call on Unite to campaign for:  

  • A return to fully grant funded social housing accountable to local communities and residents. Councils should be funded to deliver 150,000 new social rent homes
    each year, including 100,000 council homes.  
  • A massive programme of investment to bring social housing up to a high standard and to retrofit fire safety and green energy saving updates with a shift from outsourcing to using Direct Labour Organisations.  
  • Councils to adopt a ‘needs based’ policy to fight housing cuts in line with Unite policy.  
  • Public landlords to be held democratically accountable, with support provided by Unite for representative resident organisations.  
  • Local authority and HAs to act on the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations to devise PEEPs for residents, and for government to make this a mandatory requirement.  
  • Planning authorities to use their powers to ensure buildings are safe and prevent the construction of more single fire stairway buildings. We also call on the government to ban single staircase tower blocks.  
  • The government’s long-term pledge to ban unfair no fault ‘section 21’ evictions to be implemented immediately.  
  • A reintroduction of the pre-1989 position of secure tenancies with rent controls. 
  • Support for the call by housing campaigns including the Social Housing Action Campaign and New Economic Foundation for all landlords to implement a rent and service charge freeze. 
  • Labour to support the rent and service charge freeze. To date, they have resisted such calls.

 

 

Follow us on twitter @UniteHousing and keep up to date by looking at our news pages here.

News

Sanctuary housing agree to talks but scrap bonus
Sanctuary housing agree to talks but scrap bonus
Joseval vents anger at racist bosses
Joseval vents anger at racist bosses
Sanctuary housing maintenance workers step up action
Sanctuary housing maintenance workers step up action