The Socialist Party supports the strike of Unison members against Labour-run Hackney council’s library cuts. Socialist Party member Brian Debus is chair of Hackney Unison and a lead rep in the campaign
Hackney Unison press release:
Hackney Unison Library workers will be taking strike action on Tuesday 10 and Thursday 12, as well as Monday 16 and Friday 20 January, as part of our ongoing campaign against library cuts.
There will be picket lines at Dalston CLR James Library, Dalston Lane and Hackney Central, Mare Street between 8:30am and 12 noon on strike days.
We are holding a strike rally at Hackney Town Hall, Mare Street, E8 1DT on Tuesday 10 January at 12:30.
We will also have picket lines at any other site that management attempts to open.
Unison believes the restructure proposal is not fit for purpose and not sustainable for the future development of the library service.
To lose one third of all frontline staff, when the current service is struggling to deliver on all its current demands, and to rely even more on relief staff to keep the lights on, will lead to a decrease in services for the public.
Staff do not see how this system will work with the loss of 20 full-time equivalent frontline posts. In the last four weeks of the three-month consultation period, the number of staff applying for voluntary redundancy tripled from 14 to 44.
We believe one of the main factors in this increase is a realisation by more and more staff that the current proposal is unworkable and untenable, and therefore they have chosen to leave.
The whole system will have an over reliance on relief staff to keep the doors open. This is unfair to low paid relief staff, the permanent staff and in particular the public using the library service.
