A contracting company in Britain, Fremantle Trust, is facing international opprobrium after cutting low paid care workers pay by up to 30%. The workers provide residential and day care to the elderly and vulnerable residents in north London.
The trust also wants to increase hours, remove sick pay, shorten holidays and reduce payment for working unsocial hours. Even pensions to which contributions have been made during the workers’ service are to be dramatically cut by more than one third. The workers were told “accept these terms or be sacked.”
According to the Times the trust took over Barnet Council’s care home services in 1999 and workers’ contracts were transferred with the assurance that salaries and benefits would remain intact. But in April, staff saw their holiday entitlement and sick pay reduced when Fremantle implemented new contracts.
Take Action
The workers’ union, UNISON, is asking for the widest possible support for the Fremantle workers. It’s not just about pay and conditions – it’s about dignity and respect. You can sign a petition supporting the workers. You can see a range of videos of the workers telling their stories here and you can keep up to date with the campaign at this weblog.
...the gossip 
Weekly news for LabourStart’s volunteer correspondents
No. 7 – 1 September 2007
“The campaign we launched last week in support of care home workers in London has produced unprecedented results. First of all, we’ve gotten over 5,000 messages sent to the employer in only three days. (1,376 came from the UK, 921 from Canada, 859 from the USA, and 775 from Australia.)
And it’s producing results. The employer is not happy to be the subject of such a big international campaign. We’ll have more to tell you next week — but be assured, when you flood a chief executive’s inbox with 5,000 protest messages, don’t expect to be thanked for it.”
From labourStart’s Eric Lee:
“The campaign we launched a little more than a week ago in support of low-paid workers in care homes in north London has generated more support than any other campaign we have ever done.
“Already, well over 8,100 messages have been sent to the employer. This is even bigger than our 2005 campaign in support of the Gate Gourmet workers, which was a much more widely publicized dispute in the mainstream media.
“As we mentioned in this week’s message, the employer reacted swiftly “and brutally — first threatening us with a libel action in the English courts and then sacking a union rep.
“And then on Thursday, in an unprecedented move, the employer (Fremantle Trust) contacted our internet service provider and demanded that they shut down the campaign or else face a lawsuit themselves.
“We were contacted by the legal department of the internet service provider and told that we had until noon on Friday to close down the campaign or else the entire LabourStart site would be shut down.
“We worked very hard over those 24 hours to attempt to get our provider to back down, and had the full support of Unison (Britain’s giant public sector union, whose members are at the center of the dispute) but were not successful in doing this before the noon deadline on Friday.
“As a result, at 11:59 on Friday we were compelled to shut down the campaigns.
“But — we instantly revived the campaign in nine languages on a different server, in a different country, with a new name that reflects our feeling at this time.
“The new site is called “We will not be silenced!” and is located, appropriately enough, at http://www.wewillnotbesilenced.org
“If you have not yet sent off your message of protest to Fremantle, please do so from the new page.
“Remember that you can use our system to send out your own message to the chief executive of Fremantle Trust — and you can tell her, if you wish, what you think of this attempt to silence our campaign.
“Please also inform all your lists and every trade unionist you know to use the new site to send a loud and clear message to this employer.
“If Fremantle Trust were unhappy to receive 8,000 emails, how are they going to feel about getting thousands more in the next few days? Because that is exactly what is going to happen.
“We will not be intimidated, we will not be bullied, and we will not be silenced. The campaign continues.”
Enjoy your weekend.