The Green Party Trade Union Group sends solidarity and support to Barnet Unison members who will be on strike on on 2 November 2015.

The Green Party Trade Union Group sends solidarity and support to Barnet Unison members who will be on strike on on 2 November 2015. This is the latest of a series of strikes called by Barnet Unison against Barnet’s proposed almost total outsourcing of all its council services. Barnet Unison strikers are making a stand to defend not only their own pay and conditions but also to defend an accountable and proper level of services to the people of Barnet. If Barnet succeeds in its outsourcing strategy, similar extreme measures are likely to be inflicted by local authorities throughout the country. We congratulate Brent Unison on its commitment to the provision of properly staffed, democratically accountable, high quality local services and would like to see the struggle taken up in other local councils.

Noel Lynch GPTU Chair and Barnet Green Party

The reasons for the strikes are explained here UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said: “Our members want to work for the Council, they want to be directly accountable to the residents of Barnet. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will have to place the shareholders’ legal demands before local residents’ needs. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which uses zero hours contracts. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will not pay the London Living Wage as a basic minimum. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which won’t allow their colleagues to belong to their Pension Scheme, and our members don’t want to work for an employer which will take jobs out of the borough. That’s why 87% of our members working for the Council voted ‘Yes’ to taking strike action. So far the Council has failed to come close to agreeing to any one of these demands