"BEIS: stop pISSing about and give outsourcing the boot!"

BEIS cleaners and caterers on strike, 29.7.19, photo by Paula Mitchell (Click to enlarge)

Paula Mitchell, London Socialist Party

Catering workers and cleaners, members of civil service union PCS, walked out on indefinite strike action on 15 July at the government's business department, BEIS. This bold action follows 14 previous days of strike action, fighting for the London living wage and decent terms and conditions.

For a week they were also joined by porters and security staff. The private companies who employ these workers, ISS and Aramark, are getting away with paying poverty wages, and the business department is happy to let it happen. Ironically, it is the job of BEIS to ensure employment standards in business!

Essential services

While striking for the London living wage, the workers all recognise that this strike is part of a fight to bring these essential services back in-house. The strikers want to keep the pressure up on their new boss Andrea Leadsom and on Boris Johnson, who has brashly declared he supports the London living wage - so pay up!

On 18 July the BEIS strikers were joined for a demo by PCS members on strike at HMRC in Liverpool.

PCS members at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have also been on strike for the same demand from their private employer Interserve.

In fact, a wave of strike action recently in London has also seen Bromley library workers on indefinite strike (see below), special transport workers striking in Hackney, RMT members striking against driver-only operation, and school strikes against cuts and academies at John Roan school in Greenwich and Ilford County high school.

Now the independent union United Voices is preparing low-paid cleaners for a summer of strike action at several prestigious employers, including the Royal Parks.

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Coronavirus crisis - Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
Our 'fighting coronavirus workers' charter', outlines a programme to combat the virus and protect workers' living conditions.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.