London Socialist Party members report
Homelessness charity workers at St Mungo’s, already on strike for four weeks, have made their strike over pay indefinite.
Talks on Tuesday 20 June ended abruptly. Reps and officers reported that chief executive Emma Haddad shouted and swore at them, leaving them no choice but to walk out. She was compelled to issue a ‘half-apology’ in writing.
St Mungo’s convenor Jacob explained to an emergency protest outside head office the next day: “What is happening now is that people who have been working throughout this dispute are so disgusted by Haddad’s behaviour that they are coming out and joining us on the picket lines. It’s us staying out on strike and more people joining us on strike – that is what is going to inspire them to come up with a serious offer.”
Another striker added: “The example of Emma’s behaviour just goes to show: the mask is slipping, the pressure’s on. It’s even more important to turn up at the pickets.”
Unite branch organiser Nick asked: “Is she now going to apologise for the poverty wages?”
A striker at Waterloo commented on management pay: “We’ve seen that this new member of staff has been given £130,000 a year. That could be 30 members’ pay rises. The money is there for the things they want to spend it on, but not for the things that benefit the workers.”
Defending homelessness services
Several St Mungo’s strikers attended the conference of the National Shop Stewards Network (see pages 6-7) and spoke about their dispute. One said: “The CEO explained her behaviour by saying she’s only human. Well, frontline workers are only human!”
Another explained: “We don’t want a one-off lump sum, and then go back to being poor. We need an increase in our salary.”
They reported that the strike has galvanised and energised a whole new layer of union members and reps. “Our battle is not only for our own pocket, but for homelessness in the UK.”
Rough sleeping has risen by 74% since 2010. So much for the government’s pledge to end rough sleeping by 2024! Homelessness workers on the street deal with the sharp end of this crisis on a daily basis.
- A solidarity message from Unite NE/403/15 branch struck a chord with strikers: “If all the CEOs on six-figure salaries disappeared, we’d get on and do the work because that’s what we do. They need us, we don’t need them.”
St Mungo’s and the Home Office
St Mungo’s workers are proud of their increasingly stretched services, but complain bitterly that senior executives are pulling the organisation in the wrong direction.
When the CEO, recruited from the Home Office, spent a negotiating meeting shouting at Unite reps, strikers commented that she was introducing a toxic culture of fear and bullying from the Home Office to St Mungo’s. The recent addition to the highly paid executive team of a close colleague of hers at the Home Office strengthened concern.
St Mungo’s reputation was badly damaged when its role in sharing confidential client information with immigration enforcement teams was exposed. Clients found themselves in detention centres and forcibly deported. Bosses of other charities, such as Crisis, spoke out about the sometimes tragic consequences.
The deportations were found to be unlawful, but what lessons did the St Mungo’s board learn? There was an apology, and an admission that they had misled the press and campaigners. But an internal review failed to explain why senior executives were apparently unaware of the disgraceful practices. It didn’t even mention that their own staff, through Unite, had campaigned against this role. There was no independent review, and now senior staff are being recruited from the Home Office.
