COLLEGE CLEANERS DEMANDING A LIVING WAGE

MESSAGE FROM COLLEGE CLEANERS DEMANDING A LIVING WAGE: 

"We are cleaners at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, employed by Ocean. We work hard, but only get the minimum wage of £6.31 per hour. This is not enough to live on anywhere, but in London it is really difficult. The college told Ocean it needed to save money, so Ocean told us they wanted to cut our contracts from 51 weeks a year to 39 weeks. They said we had no choice. Some of the cleaners said we had no choice too, but some of us decided to fight. We joined the GMB union and then on Friday we had our first protest outside the college. There were about 15 cleaners and more than 60 college staff, students and local people. It was very noisy! We were so happy to see other people supporting us, it made us feel strong.Because of our demonstration, they are at last listening to us. College and Ocean managers have asked for a meeting on Friday with our GMB reps.We are not going to stop fighting. Until they agree to give us the London Living Wage and not cut our hours, we will continue to protest and demonstrate. We need your support:• On Thursday 21st November at 6.30pm at the Enfield Centre (73 Hertford Road EN3 5HA) we are lobbying the college Governors• On Wednesday 27th November at 8.30am we are protesting outside the college in Tottenham (High Road N15 4RU). Please come and support us!"

acknowledgements to Paul L J Mackney