Coronavirus and the economic crisis it has unleashed is having a huge impact on workers. There has already been a militant reaction from workers. In the coming period, there will be a sharp change in consciousness across the working class.
The present coronavirus crisis is affecting all workers but especially those on the frontline in the NHS, key public services and so on. This crisis is quickly exposing a growing anger over years of cutbacks and austerity. Workers, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet each month, are reacting in a militant fashion to the severe problems they now face.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, as has been already been shown in Italy, where strikes are spreading in face of incompetent bosses and the strains imposed upon them.
At the end of the day, this crisis is exposing the limits of the capitalist system, one which clearly cannot cope with this crisis.
As workers, we must not be asked to pay for a crisis which is not of our making. This is not the time to meekly accept the impositions which the bosses wish to push on us to boost their profits: no sick pay, zero-hour contracts, pay and benefit cuts, etc.
We must fight for against these incompetent bosses and their government. We must fight for our rights! The examples below, of the hospital cleaners strike in Lewisham and the bin workers strike in Bexley, are an inspiration to all.
Lewisham hospital cleaners’ strike
Today, workers are at the cutting edge of this epidemic crisis. As workplaces close or go on short-time, workers face either losing their jobs or cuts in wages. Those in precarious work are being particularly hard hit, without any sick pay if they fall ill. Many may be forced to go to work ill or face having no income to live on. Many people are only one paycheck away from being unable to pay the rent, buy food or pay their bills.
This is where the capitalist system has brought us.
No wonder workers are losing patience and fighting back. They have no alternative. As a result, cleaners at London’s Lewisham Hospital went on strike after their bosses at the outsourced company – private multinational cleaning contractor ISS – refused to pay them the wages they were entitled.
These hospital cleaners are on the front line in the battle to stop the coronavirus infection. There is intense pressure on them. But they are being treated scandalously.
Lewisham Hospital was the first hospital in London to treat a coronavirus patient. Cleaners have put themselves at risk along with health staff, but ISS bosses have disgracefully withheld their wages, either through non-payment or being under-paid. Cleaners, together with porters and catering staff have been missing pay since 27 February.
On Thursday 12 March, their patience snapped and they went on strike.
The workers are represented by the GMB. The union reacted swiftly to support its members, demanding their pay and also asking for 100 pounds in compensation for each worker as a “goodwill” payment. The director of ISS, Nick Clarke, accused the workers of holding him to “ransom”.
As a sop, Clarke said the problem would be resolved within a week and offered to increase workers’ pay to £10.55 an hour in April – something that ISS had already previously committed to. Most workers are on the bare minimum of £8.21 an hour.
But what were these workers supposed to live on in the meantime? Who was going to pay their bills? One worker, unable to afford the bus fares, was forced to walk to work from Woolwich to Lewisham.
Helen O’Connor, the Southern region officer for the GMB, said “This could not have happened at a worse time — we are facing a coronavirus pandemic and infected patients are now being admitted into hospital.
“Meanwhile the people who are meant to be keeping the hospital clean and safe are not getting paid. Once again the dangers of outsourcing in the NHS are laid bare for all to see.”
These workers have been treated like dirt for a long time. They are low-paid workers in a health sector which has been blighted by outsourcing and privatisation.
The private bosses are only interested in making profits from peoples’ ill-health. These services must be brought back in-house on proper NHS conditions.
The Tory chancellor promised that the NHS will get everything it needs and yet in Lewisham hospital cleaners, despite being in the front line, are not being paid properly.
The likes of Richard Branson have no problem in this regard. As ever, it is the workers who keep things running that are being asked to pay for capitalism’s crises.
This scandal in the NHS and elsewhere has been caused by years of cuts, austerity and attacks on workers conditions. It is about time we put an end to this crime.
- Pay the cleaners now – with compensation!
- Bring back all services in-house on trade union rates!
- No privatisation!
- End zero-hour contracts!
- Full pay to staff forced to self-isolate!
Bexley bin workers’ strike – “we have taken enough shit”
Bin workers are at the end of their tether. With no hand sanitiser, in a refuse depot of all places, workers in Bexley recently went on strike over this issue. Then in a mass meeting broadened their demands to cover other key issues.
“Due to a lack of hand sanitiser in the depot the BEXLEY bin-men and women have contracted a bad case of BSE — Big Strike Energy,” explained one worker. “This is honestly one of the best union meetings I have ever attended… Over a hundred and twenty in attendance and a unanimous and militant determination to see this strike through.
“We demand:
1) pay equality with neighbouring Greenwich, an end to poverty pay and exploitation (rates are as low as £8.90p/h)
2) full sick pay
3) an end to precarious zero hours contracts.”
“Every worker took a solemn pledge to hit the picket lines with our reps outlining that it isn’t about pay, it’s about respect, pride and dignity. Bexley Council and Serco get ready. We’ve taken enough shit.”
The angry mood of the bin workers in Bexley, like that of the cleaners in Lewisham, will quickly be replicated across the country as workers see how they are being shortchanged by the bosses.
