PCS members working for Sodexo in HMRC in Northern Ireland are out on strike again in the last week of July, against cuts to their hours and threatened job losses. These workers provide cleaning, porterage, kitchen and reception services in HMRC offices. Cuts mean both detriment to them and to civil servants whose working environment will worsen as Sodexo colleagues are stretched thinner, to maximise the bosses’ profits.
All cuts are unacceptable but, even more disgracefully, Sodexo has predominantly cut the hours of older women workers who already face the sharp end of austerity. PCS demands all cuts be reversed, the threat of redundancy rescinded, and full trade union recognition of PCS.
In an bid to undermine the industrial action, Sodexo is bringing in scab labour to cover the contract during the strike – many of them management on much higher wages!
But we would expect this from a massive corporation – even more appalling is that Erskine House is where the Labour Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is based. The UK government, run by the party allegedly ‘for the workers’, is allowing and tacitly encouraging strikebreaking, much like it is doing with the outstanding Birmingham bin strike of Unite members, this time in it’s own offices. This party of the bosses is not for workers.
As Andy Burnham takes office, his own workers are in revolt across multiple areas. If he means what he’s been saying about dragging Labour to the Left, he can start in his own backyard. PCS calls on management in HMRC and the Labour government to intervene – insist that Sodexo immediately cease strikebreaking and comply with PCS’s demands, including bringing all outsourced workers back in house.
Please send any messages of solidarity for Sodexo strikers to kimh@pcs.org.uk