After having their chairs and sheltered cabins taken away by the university bosses, security guards at King’s College London (KCL) have begun organising against their exploitative conditions.
In November, the workers – organised in Unison – will begin balloting for strike action.
This is the result of weeks of work, in which RCP comrades at KCL and the local area have been energetically participating.
Back in July we started talking to security guards, who told us about how they are forced to stand for the whole duration of their 12-hour shifts, and how staff with medical conditions have been sent home for the ‘crime’ of leaning against a wall!
We suggested reaching out to wider layers of students and campus workers, including academic and administrative staff, to get them involved in the fight. Strength comes with numbers!
To this end, we produced a leaflet to distribute on campus. This culminated in an open meeting on 25 September, where we invited workers and union reps to discuss how to take the fight forward.
At a protest in October, workers approached students and encouraged them to take their leaflets and join the protest. Some students are now sending emails to senior management demanding a reversal of their measures.
The guards have established connections with the KCL cleaning staff, who are also organised in Unison, and will be struggling for better pay as part of an upcoming national ballot.
Most academic staff didn’t realise the full extent of their co-workers’ grievances. Without exception, once people heard about the guards’ poor conditions and their poverty pay, they were on their side.
The success of this campaign so far shows the galvanising role that even a small number of Revolutionary Communists can play in workers’ struggles.
On the back of this work, we have raised the profile of the RCP; gained the respect of the workers; and got a handful of people interested in joining the Party.
Poverty pay
These staff members are some of the most exploited on campus. Their long hours leave them completely exhausted and stop them from spending time with their family. In the words of one worker, they are “working away their lives”.
Their base pay comes in at just £11.90 per hour – not even 50p more than the minimum wage.
Some workers have been at KCL for over 10 years working under a subcontractor. But once they were brought in-house their pay was drastically cut.
Meanwhile the KCL Vice Chancellor pockets over £400k a year, and security night managers can afford to rent expensive cars to drive between campuses.
As we highlighted in our leaflet, the funds that aren’t snatched up by management end up in the university’s lucrative investment portfolio, including companies like BlackRock, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin – all of whom are complicit in Israel’s genocide against Gaza.
Management then demands that its security workers act like police officers – defending their profits and reputation against pesky students demanding divestment and disclosure. But they pay security a pittance! As one worker said, “if you pay peanuts, you’ll get a monkey”.
All of this explains why one of our suggested demands has been enthusiastically discussed by the guards: an 8-hour day with no loss of pay, instead of the gruelling 12-hour shifts which workers are currently forced to endure.
Forward to a strike!
The 24 October protest was posed by the workers as “a warning to management” – and indeed there is a real mood to fight these spineless bosses.
Many at the protest gave passionate speeches calling out the management and demanding an end to their cruel policies.
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Management in turn responded that they would respond to the appeal in ten working days. They evidently want to dither and delay, hoping everything will just blow over. Well, they have another thing coming!
The workers are fed up, and will be balloting for strike action in November, aiming for a walkout in January.
Whatever demands are decided upon, RCP members will be campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote, and we will continue to build support amongst students and campus staff.
When the workers clean and protect the university’s luxury buildings, but have to eat their lunch in crammed, mice-infested break rooms, they see first-hand that the money exists. It’s simply in the wrong hands!
As one security worker said, “the bosses don’t care about improving things. They say they don’t have more money, but they keep employing more managers.”
That’s why we say to the bosses: ‘prove that the money isn’t there: open up the books!’
If the management can’t run the university to meet everyone’s needs, then it should be down to workers and students to decide how the money is spent!
The RCP calls for:
- Solidarity with the KCL security workers and cleaners!
- An 8-hour day with no loss of pay!
- Better pay for unsociable hours!
- KCL management: open up the books!
- For staff and student control of university finances!
