University of London brings all cleaners in-house after long succession of strikes and protests
Cleaners at the University of London have been brought in-house after almost a decade of struggling to be recognised as staff.
Photo by Philip Robins on Flickr
The outsourced cleaners of the University of London (UoL) have campaigned relentlessly for eight years against their precarious position in the university structure. Their strategy of combining strikes with boycotts, such as the Senate House boycott which was supported by academics and politicians, has finally proved successful.
An announcement on November 2 confirmed that between 60 to 80 cleaners who were previously subcontracted by the outsourcing firm Cordant have been brought in-house. They are now direct employees of the university, following the steps of their reception-based and security officer colleagues, who were granted similar rights earlier this year.
This victory was the culmination of a long-running campaign across the UoL, the umbrella institution for 17 institutions in the capital. The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union led the campaign at the federation of London universities. The campaign consisted of waves of strike action and public protests, including a strike at UCL in November 2019, which was the biggest strike of outsourced workers in UK higher education history.
The longevity of the outsourced workers’ strife is evident in Aditya Chakrabortty’s 2013 Guardian article, which reports on UoL cleaners fighting for their rights. It details the maltreatment of women migrant cleaners who served the UoL but worked for a contractor that gave them “no sick pay, no holiday, no pension.” These workers called themselves “The Invisibles” because hardly anybody on campus acknowledged them. The IWGB’s current president, Henry Chango Lopez, who was once a cleaner himself, emphasised in an interview with Novara Media that outsourcing “creates discrimination, it even creates racism… and that’s the reason we are fighting outsourcing everywhere.”
The IWGB Boycott Senate House Campaign tweeted that this victory will not only bring back “an equality that has been long denied to outsourced workers”, but also means important material gains. These material gains include “enhanced annual leave, pay raise, dignified pensions” and “enhanced parental leave.” According to the Boycott Senate House campaign, these rights “should have never been denied to outsourced workers” in the first place.
The IWGB also celebrated the milestone on Twitter, tweeting that they are “so proud of this victory and the workers who fought together and won with the total support of the union”, claiming that “with unity, solidarity and determination everything is possible.”
Onaily Carreno, who has worked as a cleaner at the UoL for five years, actively participated in the campaign. In conversation with Novara Media via a translator, she claimed that the most significant change for her will be better parental leave. Carreno said: “My focus has been to never lose the vision and to face what is in front of us, and to fight – fight for our rights as workers.” Carreno additionally emphasised that “This victory does not mean we stop fighting and supporting each other” but “on the contrary, we keep fighting with more strength and energy with our union – hasta la victoria!”
In an interview with The Guardian, Henry Chango Lopez revealed he was “very proud” of the IWGB’s achievement: “We fought so hard and for so many years. My father still works there as a porter. This has been a lot of stress to all of us involved. We had to stay strong and remain united and that has been a long process that has cost a lot of energy.”
However, despite the breakthrough for the IWGB, work is still to be done. This includes bringing other workers such as caterers in-house, maintaining the cleaners’ contracts, and ensuring that jobs are not cut during the coronavirus pandemic.