Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/549/6438
From The Socialist newspaper, 24 September 2008
Jamie's school dinner staff threatened with privatisation
After a meeting with Greenwich council managers on 17 September, Greenwich Unison expressed alarm at the council's intentions to privatise school catering and cleaning.
Unison branch secretary, Onay Kasab said: "We have been warning about this for some time. This is the first admission by the council that the services will be privatised, if the council gets its way. Effectively, the council is saying it cannot make its own in-house bid.
"If we take catering as an example, the Jamie Oliver project showed the effects of years of underinvestment and privatisation - now, in the borough that spearheaded the project, the service is to be privatised. It really is time for the council to come clean.
"We think that this is just the beginning. We strongly suspect that more services are under threat. Privatisation does not lead to better services. Just ask the elderly who rely on homecare services no longer provided by the council but instead by agencies, where time is money, home visits are time-limited and where you rarely see the same carer twice."
The union is launching an anti-privatisation campaign, beginning with a lobby of the next full council meeting on 29 October at 6pm at the Town Hall.
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In The Socialist 24 September 2008:
Their failure, their system: make capitalists pay
Socialist Students
Education a 'them and us' system
Socialist Party editorial
New Labour flounders in face of economic crisis
Socialist Party feature
Merseyside CNWP calls for socialist policies
Socialist Party campaigns
Protesting against Bush and Brown's wars
Jamie's school dinner staff threatened with privatisation
Fighting the racist BNP in Stoke
We won't take the RAP on pollution
Health Trust concessions on Swansea casualty unit
Salford councillors play blame game
Socialist Party workplace news
Civil service strike ballot begins
Workers vow to fight Ford's closure plans
International socialist news and analysis
Revolution and counter-revolution in Bolivia
Socialist Party review
The Dark Knight: Batman's latest crime-buster
McMafia: Crime Without Borders
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