Saturday, September 08, 2007

Slash wages, Provoke Strikes, Sack Stewards & Sue: Fremantle – The Third Sector Nightmare?


In March this year I put up a post supporting Barnet UNISON over their campaign to stop vulnerable ex-local authority care workers, having their wages and working conditions slashed by this so called caring “not for profit” company, Fremantle. Not only are their basic wages being cut by about 30% but their sickness pay, holidays and overtime rates have been cut. See also the UNISON web site.

Since then there has been strike action by workers opposed to the cuts. That was hardly surprising. These workers were already low paid. What has been surprising is the appalling campaign of intimidation being waged against the strikers and their supporters.

Using tactics reminiscent of the most violent “union busters” in the United States, Fremantle have sacked one of the striking stewards (Andrew Rogers) and have even launched legal action and shut down the campaign page (not yet the site) of the well respected international trade union web site “Labourstart” . Labourstart have been able to relaunch this campaign on a new server. Check out “We will not be Silenced

Fremantle’s web site claims they operate In 50 locations across Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Maidenhead, Barnet, Harrow and employ 1,500 staff. I’m not sure where or how Fremantle get their money from, however, it is absolutely clear that there are serious problems with the way that it treats its employees and uses what must be at source, public money, to launch what appears to be vindictive legal action against critics. I’ll have to do some digging about who provides contracts and funding.

Fremantle is in danger of discrediting the entire “not for profit” Voluntary sector. The Trustees need to take control of their senior management team and sort this out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw this on labour start and looked for something about it on the regional UNISON site -but nothing apart from an old post some months ago. i would have hoped that a local dispute like this would be publicised officially in the region -and also what is happening in Newham?
Isn't the region supporting these disputes?

John Gray said...

Hi anon – check out the London Region news feed on Fremantle 29.8.07? Yes, we probably need to re-examine what resources we use for regional web site.