Living wage: Sheffield University
Submitted by mark osborn on May 13, 2007 - 12:23pm.
Following discussions with trade union representatives from the GMB, TGWU (Unite) and Unison, students concerned about the rights of the workers who make their university experience possible formed a 'Workers' Rights Coalition' which met for the first time in late April. The No Sweat Society had already opened up a dialogue with campus workers - speaking to dozens of cleaners, porters and catering staff about their working conditions. Amongst the facts discovered was the shocking revelation that the Information Commons - Sheffield's new, state-of-the-art, multi-million pound, 24hr learning centre - is staffed by just seven cleaners (compared to twenty one cleaners in roughly equivalent buildings that are not open 24hrs).
The Coalition will meet again on Monday 14th May (7pm in Lecture Theatre 1, Arts Tower) to discuss how student activists can help these workers fight for dignity and justice at work.
For more information, contact Max at hia04mam at sheffield.ac.uk or Gemma at mba06gs at sheffield.ac.uk
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Meeting report
The Sheffield University Workers' Rights Coalition - a network launched by No Sweat supporters on campus which brings together social justice activists, trade unionists and human rights campaigners - held its second meeting recently. Around 20 people attended, along with a local UCU activists and an organiser from the GMB union. Shop stewards from Unite (TGWU) and Unison sent their apologies.
The Coalition came together after No Sweat launched a 'living wage' initiative to investigate, and campaign around, the pay and conditions of non-academic staff on campus - cleaners, catering staff, security staff and porters. After having established a dialogue with workers in a range of locations, the Coalition decided to collate workers' response to give a cross-section of grievances at work. Although some workers mentioned pay, management arrogance and complete lack of communication is often cited as a more immediate concern; during a recent round of university restructuring, the campus's main library switched to 24/7 opening hours. This was good news for students, but less good news for the porters who were informed about their new contracts only a few weeks before the change happened, forcing many of them to cancel holiday time that they had booked.
The meeting also agreed to focus on the university's flagship "Information Commons" (IC) building which, despite being six storeys tall and also open 24/7, is only staffed by six or seven cleaners, effectively forcing the one or two cleaners on shift at any one time to do the work of several people. The campaign's next steps will be to produce a bulletin focusing on the grievances of workers in the IC, and to get an article in the first issue of the student paper in the 2007/2008 term. The meeting also decided that the restructuring of student accommodation - which may lead to job-losses - should be a focus for the new year.
As well as building relationships with unions at a local level, the Coalition is also in touch with living wage campaigners at Unison nationally. Through these links, activists hope to develop a worker and trade union led campaign for rights, dignity and justice at work. The Coalition will meet again on the 23rd May in the Satpal Ram Room at the Students' Union. For more information, contact Gemma at mba06gs@sheffield.ac.uk or Max at hia04mam@sheffield.ac.uk