Glasgow Homeless strike ends with a win for fair pay

By Matt Dobson

After 17 weeks of all-out strike action the Glasgow Homeless Caseworkers have won the central demand of their dispute. Today, the strikers voted to accept an offer that secures the regrading of the Caseworker post.

The Glasgow City Unison statement today said: “The offer was recommended to a mass meeting today (21 July) by the union branch and the striking shop stewards and secures the central demand of the dispute – parity on Grade 6 with other frontline social care staff. The offer creates 68 new Grade 6 posts with the council describing that number as a floor. The three temporary caseworkers whose substantive posts are Grade 4 will be given permanent Grade 5 posts elsewhere in the homeless service.”

“The council has insisted an assessment process takes place for these posts, but the union will have a consultative role in this process. Caseworkers will also receive a transition cash payment of £350 while this assessment takes place. The strike has been successful in winning a £1,000 increase following the assessment process, rising to £5,000 by 2018. In addition, the council has been forced to concede an acceptable number of Grade 6 posts.”

Bosses defeated

It is important to recognise what this all-out strike has achieved. At the onset of the strike in March Glasgow social work management and Labour councillors publicly stated that the Caseworkers were not deserving of a regrade. They have now been forced to concede the fundamental demand of the strike; fair pay for the Homeless Caseworker post. This is a reversal of their original position that was only possible from the pressure of the strike.

The determination of the strikers staying out for 17 weeks, displaying energy and a high level of organisation has secured the regrade.

Also important was the threat made by the union for withdrawal of funding for Labour by Unison Scotland which was critical in applying political pressure. This led, ten weeks into the strike, to the council conceding the principle that Homeless Caseworkers should be on Grade 6.

The council then attempted to minimise the numbers they would have to regrade in an effort to divide the workforce, but the strikers stood firm and have now achieved an important victory.

The struggle of the Glasgow Homeless Caseworkers has taken place in the context of all council workforces facing a tsunami of cuts, huge increases in workloads and attacks on terms and conditions as Tory austerity is passed on by all local authorities.

Unison nationally, alongside other unions with a right wing leadership, have failed to mobilise the national action that is needed against this onslaught. This strike has inspired support from across the country as an example of what can be done when workers are given a chance to fight back.

Labour council exposed

The anti-union behaviour of a management who were determined to force a return to work without conceding the regrade for the majority and, most of all, weaken the position of the socialist-led Glasgow Unison branch should be taken into account.

They refused to negotiate with the union until over a month into the strike. Their first two offers were attempts to divide the workforce. It also shouldn’t be forgotten that the Homeless Caseworkers have been in dispute over fair pay since 2013 when a wildcat strike took place over the victimisation of a Caseworker for union activities.   

The Labour council used illegal strike breaking tactics by using third sector organisations to try and keep the homeless service going and cover the strikers caseloads.

Preparations for the strike were consciously made, including the stockpiling of accommodation. Homeless people were turned away from the workplaces, breaking statutory obligations as the service began to collapse. Social work management and the Labour administration were prepared to let vulnerable homeless people suffer for months as a price for trying to force a return to work.

The Homeless Caseworkers strike has come after disputes involving Residential Care Workers and Pupil Support Assistants in the last couple of years. In all of these struggles Glasgow Unison have put a brake on the council using the workforce to implement its cost-cutting agenda.

The fight continues

The council, as part of its cuts program and commitment to pass on Tory austerity, will seek to cut posts in the Social Care Homelessness service over the next twelve months.

Again the Labour council will also seek to inflict defeats on the union which has been its most consistent and powerful opposition over the cuts.

However, the strikers tenacity and the level of public support in the city and beyond shows that council workers and the wider community are willing to fight and will be prepared to confront the council’s offensive, with Glasgow City Unison playing a central role in this.

The seventeen week all-out strike united all the workplaces and cut across historical divisions played on by a bullying management. Critically, the branch leadership, stewards and the strike committee encouraged the maximum involvement of all strikers in picketing, demonstrations, the forms of industrial pressure and democratic discussion on the way forward for the dispute. This has developed new activists that can only strengthen the position of the union branch for the battles to come.

Fantastic support came in for the strike from workers and trade unionists across the country with tens of thousands donated to the strike fund and speaking tours organised. Important links were also made with striking workers elsewhere, particularly the victorious Dundee Ninewells and Royal Victoria porters who were on all-out strike for fair pay for 13 weeks and with whom the Caseworkers held joint rallies and demonstrations. Both the porters and now the Glasgow Homeless workers successes underlines that strike action works. If the national trade union leadership were prepared to call coordinated and unified strike action then the fightback against Tory austerity, and the Labour and SNP politicians who are implementing it, could really begin.

As Glasgow City Unison commented today: “In a climate of huge cuts to local government, and against a hard-nosed management who tried to undermine the action by using other agencies, then the overall outcome of the strike should be celebrated. The seventy strikers conducted themselves magnificently. The UNISON Glasgow Branch is so proud of them – we know that many others across the trade union movement feel the same. Well done to the Glasgow Homeless Strikers! Thank you to all those who donated so generously to the strike fund, invited the strikers to speak at your meetings and sent messages of support.”