The parking wardens’ pay rise comes after two months of picketing amid the cost of living crisis

JOIN your union!

That’s the lesson to be learned from Camden Unison’s impressive victory against the council’s parking contractor, (Striking parking wardens win £5k pay rise, September 21).

Traffic wardens should be proud of the stand they took over the past two months. Faced with a measly pay increase they overwhelmingly voted to launch an indefinite strike.

Agreeing to walk out for as long it takes is no small decision to make. But it was one that ultimately won them a pay rise that will make a significant difference to their lives.

As we have seen with the many other professions on strike over the past year, in the NHS, schools, fire brigade and on the railways, companies with public money contracts – and government departments – appear more than willing to try and ride out the individual disputes.

But an indefinite strike is a different proposition. Particularly when with each day that passes employers are being hit where it hurts: in their bank balance.

The parking wardens’ strike was always onto a winner as what they do brings in so much revenue to Camden.

Without the backing of the union, which uses its funds and donations to supplement lost wages for members when they are on strike, wardens would have had no chance of winning a decent pay rise.

Demands dismissed as absurd and unreasonable by NSL in the first week of the dispute have now been met.

Traffic wardens may not be the most popular group of public sector workers, particularly among drivers and those who have been caught out with expensive penalty notices. But they work tough shifts, are out whatever the weather, including during Covid when others were at home for their own safety.

We have heard through the strike how they face terrible abuse – sometimes physical – subjected to racism, and in one case even an attempted “abduction”.

Their bold stand should be celebrated by everyone in Camden who is struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Of course the Camden Unison victory is not going to make a change to the national picture. Thousands of people in Camden will still be struggling to meet their bills, make mortgage repayments, to feed and clothe their children.

Imagine what could be achieved if strikers came together in a wider movement.

From the onset of the Industrial Revolution, working men and women have been withholding their labour as a means of bargaining for better pay and conditions.

Today, so many public sector workers are now employed by profit-seeking companies. They, and this government, have as their only true concern the cost of the workforce, rather than whether individuals can make ends meet.

A coordinated indefinite national strike would truly force this ailing government, and its potential Labour Party successors, into a corner it could not weasel its way out of.

So, join a union. Get active. And help stop the race to the bottom.