Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Worse Tories in Britain – Hammersmith & Fulham Council

Stephen Cowan, the Labour Group Leader at Hammersmith & Fulham Council (H&F) writes a very good blog (The Cowan Report) about the goings on at the now Conservative run Council.

In particular I thought his post here about what happens to staff when Labour loses control of Councils to Tories is very apt. H&F switched to the Tories in the last local elections in 2006 after decades of control by Labour. Since then front line staff have had their wages reduced by up to 50% while at the same time Senior Tory Councillors have increased their bonuses by 14-18%. Council services have been “dogmatically” transferred out to private contractors. Over 4,000 staff are being dismissed and re-engaged on inferior terms and conditions. There will be a reduction in maternity pay, dependency leave and extended working hours.

Like Stephen I do still meet La La land Council workers who also claim that there is no difference between Labour and the Tories. Tell that to the UNISON members in H&F who are currently serving out their redundancy notice.

I also posted recently here about the attempt of H&F to build a major housing development with no public (social) housing. This is the Tories gerrymandering at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.

Recently I met up with a local Labour Party member and trade union activist who is normally very critical of the Party and many of its policies. However, he reminded me that he still strongly believed that even on its worse day a Labour government or Council was far better than a Tory one on its very best day. Some people need to remember this.

Mind you are H&F Tories the worse in Britain? There is one heck of a lot of competition.

4 comments:

Stephen Cowan said...

Cheers John

Thanks for the comment.

It's not just the workers they're attacking either. Here they have shut the pulic out of a local park to let the Polo set have it instead:

http://thecowanreport.blogspot.com/2008/11/fences-go-up-public-excluded-as-h.html

And here they've turned the homeless down for a Chritmas night shelter and festive meal:

http://thecowanreport.blogspot.com/2007/12/h-conservatives-tell-bbc-and-homeless.html

All much worse than we or the public could ever have imagined the Tories would be prior to the last election.

Thanks for your support and keep up the good work.

Regards
Steve

Charlie Marks said...

The Nasty party is alive and well, it would seem...

RE: la la land. Council staff who have not experienced working for a Tory authority really can't comment...

Anonymous said...

Good post the tories in h and f are truly appaling and the local unison branch are giving them hell.

I hope you will do all u can as a london regional officer to get the region to support the campaign then John as I understand that so far there has been a lack of support and help from unison london?

John Gray said...

Hi Anon
I’m a regional council officer (London lay Executive) not a regional officer (directly employed by UNISON). Good to hear that the Branch is giving them hell, but of course we want results for our members not just empty noise. I am sure you agree and I am absolutely sure that the region is offering plenty of support and help. Keep up the good work.