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Learning from the Cleaners? Migrant Organizing at the University of London Julie Hearn & Monica Bergos British Aca

Learning from the Cleaners? Migrant Organizing at the University of London Julie Hearn & Monica Bergos British Academy Small Grant 2008 (SG-50666). University of London Cleaners. Federation of nineteen self-governing colleges and institutes with over 120,000 students

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Learning from the Cleaners? Migrant Organizing at the University of London Julie Hearn & Monica Bergos British Aca

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  1. Learning from the Cleaners? Migrant Organizing at the University of LondonJulie Hearn & Monica BergosBritish Academy Small Grant 2008 (SG-50666)

  2. University of London Cleaners • Federation of nineteen self-governing colleges and institutes with over 120,000 students • Most of its cleaners are sub-contracted migrant workers on minimum wages • 2005-2010 nine out of the nineteen colleges & institutes pay or have agreed to pay the London Living Wage of £8.30 (minimum wage £5.93)

  3. Living Wage at University of London • 2006 Queen Mary & LSE • 2008 School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) • Birkbeck; LSHTM; Institute of Education; Goldsmith’s; London Business School; UCL • (King’s working towards implementation) • 2010 University of East London (UEL) • March 2011 London Met • Current campaign at South Bank

  4. Living Wage Campaign at SOAS • 18 month long struggle (2006-2008) • Low paid, migrant, non-unionised Spanish-speaking workers (Colombian & Ecuadorian), who won: • Union recognition • 34% increase in wages • Visibility, solidarity, empowerment

  5. Research Methodology • Ten semi-structured interviews in Spanish with campaign activists • Participant observation (meetings, campaign ballot) and discussion with branch officials • Interviews with national officials of UNISON, Unite, RMT & Latin American Workers Association (LAWAS)

  6. Research Publications • Hearn, J. & Bergos, M. (2010) ‘Learning from the Cleaners? Trade Union Activism among Low Paid Latin American Migrant Workers at the University of London’, Working Paper No. 7 Identity, Citizenship & Migration Centre, University of Nottingham. • Hearn, J. & Bergos, M. (2011) ‘Latin American Cleaners Fight for Survival: Lessons for Migrant Activism’, Race and Class 53(1): 65-82

  7. Presentation Structure • Context: Pay & working conditions • Challenges of organising in this context • Against the Odds: The story of building a migrant-friendly, effective union • Achievements • Underpinnings of success • Reprisals: Dismissals & deportations • Conclusion: Strategy & tactics

  8. Context: Deteriorating Poverty Pay • London’s labour market has become increasingly polarised with jobs at the bottom end experiencing real and relative deterioration. ‘While working Londoners gained an average of 71p per hour in their real earnings between 2001 and 2005 ... cleaners lost 44p per hour’ Wills, J. et al (2009: 445)

  9. Context: Minimum vs Living Wage • The minimum wage ‘reflects what the market will bear rather than what is actually required to live’ (Wills 2009: 38) • Single person in council housing needs £13,400 per year to live (Joseph Rowntree Foundation in Wills 2009: 38). In 2009/10 minimum wage was just under £12,000 p.a. • Gap between income and need

  10. Context: Sub-contracted Sector • ‘an immiseration of workers’ • Herod, A. & Aguiar, L. (eds) (2006) The Dirty Work of Neoliberalism: Cleaners in the Global Economy • Wills, J. (2008) ‘Making Class Politics Possible: Organizing Contract Cleaners in London’, Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32(2)

  11. Context: ‘Migrant consuming sector’ • Labour Force Survey of London: Percentage of Migrant Workers in the Cleaning Sector • 1993-94 41% • 2004-05 69% (Wills et al 2009)

  12. Challenges for Organizing • Fear (harassment, losing job, deportation) • Powerlessness (change impossible) • Language, culture, racism • Nature of shift work (invisible, isolation) • High turnover, part-time, overtime, caring • Historic hostility • Not core constituency • Resource intense (translation, legal support)

  13. Cause: Non-payment by cleaning contractor • Dec 2006 protests, Jan 2007 campaign starts • Includes: Non-unionized cleaners, SOAS UNISON, SOAS SU, SOAS UCU • Demands: London Living Wage, In-house terms and conditions, union recognition

  14. Jan 2007 Showing of ‘Bread & Roses’ • May 2007 May Day March, Bloomsbury • Nov 2007 Online Petition with 100s of staff signatures

  15. April 2008 ‘Teach-In’ • May 2008 Student and Staff Ballot (458 vote) • June 2008 Governing Body voted: • London Living Wage from Sept 2008 • Trade Union Recognition Agreement • Contracted Out (ISS Facility Services)

  16. Underpinning Success: Visibility • ‘Ahora ya no estamos invisibles como antes’ • ‘Now we are not invisible any more. Thanks to the campaign, people think differently about us. They say “cleaners can speak, they know how to stand up for their rights”’ • McIlwaine, C. et al (2011) No Longer Invisible: The Latin American Community in London

  17. Underpinning Success: Solidarity • ‘La sensacion de no estar sola, tener el apoyo de companeros, estudiantes, profesores ... eso te da fuerza para luchar’ • ‘People started to care for others, solidarity became key ... The feeling of not being alone and the support of your workmates helped me to keep fighting.’

  18. Underpinning Success: Empowerment • ‘Me siento ahora mas seguro, mas fuerte’ • ‘Now I feel stronger and more confident’ • ‘It was a new experience that taught me many things. It’s great to learn that you have rights as a worker and to know that nobody should treat you unfairly... It was an amazing experience that I would recommend to everyone’

  19. Reprisals: Dismissals and Deportations • ‘No war is won without blood. We knew that there would casualties, many losses.’ • Reconfiguration of power • ‘Some employers may seek to disrupt collective action by carrying out document checks on key trade union activists... This may be a deliberate attempt to undermine trade union negotiations’ TUC (2010) Immigration Document Checks and Workplace Raids.

  20. 2009 SOAS Unison branch president dismissed (2009 Voted honorary president of SOAS SU) • 2009 UCL Unite cleaner sacked • 2009 SOAS dawn raid, 40 police in riot gear, nine cleaners arrested, the week after a recognition agreement had been signed and on day of protest against dismissal of branch president. Student occupation

  21. ‘We had to make a choice: either we do nothing and our conditions stay the same or we start the campaign... We knew that ... Families might lose out now, but we had to look to the future and organise better working conditions for everyone’ • ‘Thus although the living wage campaign has been able to secure greater money for contract cleaners ... The campaign needed to secure the legal rights of many of those workers doing the work’ (Wills et al 2009: 447)

  22. Conclusion: Strategy & Tactics • Unions have proved that they can organise and win successful campaigns around union recognition and pay and conditions • But how do they PROTECT migrant activists? • 2009 RMT voted for the regularisation of all cleaners and proposed this to the TUC

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