Union reps say it’s time to start ‘shouting and screaming’ at Camden

COUNCIL chiefs should intervene and bring an end to the parking warden strike, union chiefs said as pay rise dispute entered its sixth week.

The Town Hall has been criticised for washing its hands of the row between more than 100 low-paid Camden Unison members and its contractor, NSL.

The union is preparing to up the ante next week with a “slave Labour” leafleting campaign and protests in senior councillors’ wards including Adam Harrison in Bloomsbury, Georgia Gould’s Kentish Town and a demo outside the council office in St Pancras Square.

Libby Nolan, the national President of the Unison, rallied the wardens at a protest on Saturday outside the Crowndale Centre on Saturday, saying: “Let’s get on with shouting and screaming at Camden.”

She said: “One of the things being president does it puts me into places where I never thought I’d go. I mention you wherever I’d go. You are not forgotten. I will not give up on fighting for you in those boardrooms and those boring places I have to go. Because the real place where action happens is here: It’s on picket lines demos and marches. You are the union, don’t ever forget that.”

Ms Nolan, who worked at the Royal Free and described herself as “always Camden”, added: “Everywhere in Unison there are low-paid workers fighting for fairness and money in their pockets so they can pay their mortgages and afford to eat. It doesn’t take much to rise up and say enough is enough.”

Reps from Lambeth, Barnet, Tower Hamlets, Homerton Hospital, UCLH Unison branches were joined by Camden Trades Council, RMT and UNITE at the demo. The parking wardens are calling for a pay rise from £12.70 up to £15.90 an hour.

Camden Unison rep Liz Wheatley said “there is no sign of cracking from our side, absolutely not”, adding: “People are really solid. But we want to say: what are our elected representatives doing about this? “I would expect the Labour council to want to be actively involved in getting a positive settlement to a trade dispute. We have a low expectations because it is August. But this is clearly going to go on unless there is some kind of intervention. Why is Camden having contracts with company’s like this?”

Council leader Georgia Gould said: “In the midst of a cost of living crisis we are doing all we can to support our staff and contractors. Camden is a living wage employer and insists on the living wage in all our contracts. We are urging our contractor to listen seriously to staff concerns about pay and to keep negotiations open.

“At the same time we are asking government to recognise the extreme pressure on all public sector workers and increase funding in line with inflation.”