Notting Hill Housing Strike: Kate “Beware the Ides of March”

Tomorrow (Monday) 15th March there will be the first day of strike action by UNISON members of Notting Hill Housing Trust. The main picket lines will be at their headquarters Broadway, Metro Building, 1 Butterwick, Hammersmith, London W6 8DL. This is about 5 mins from both Hammersmith Underground stations - Come and show solidarity before work or lunch time. Check out the office location here.

Notting Hill Housing is getting rid of carers leave, flexi-time and attacking basic terms and conditions of staff. They are refusing to go to ACAS and are refusing to allow the union to even speak to its Board members. What on earth have they got to hide?

Messages of support can be sent to activists@unisonhablondon.org and to the supporters’ blog set up for UNISON members at Notting Hill Housing http://altogetherworse.blogspot.com/ or http://twitter.com/unisonhousing

You really have to take your hat off to Notting Hill Housing CEO Kate Davies for bringing about in the midst of a recession the first strike in our branch in decades. There was an incredible 93.5% majority in favour of strike action. This is unheard of and must mean that there is appalling morale amongst staff in this organisation. Why are they doing it? According to its own website NHHT has an asset base of £1,317m and an annual turnover of £167m. Group reserves on 2008/2009 totalled £188m and its operating profit was £19.8m.

So there are not any financial reasons for either of these changes or the failure to negotiate with the Union. Getting rid of Carers leave for staff with young sick children or disabled dependants will only save £30k per year. This is less than 1/5th of the CEO’s annual salary.

There are obviously very serious governance failures in the Group. Everyone knows that nearly all the Senior Management team are privately appalled at what has happened but no-one is willing to stand up to the CEO and hold her to account.

The CEO is also notorious as being a housing adviser to Conservative leader, David Cameron, who chaired a Tory think tank report that came up with the proposals that security of tenure should be taken away from secure and assured tenants and that rents should be raised to private “market levels”.

So are we also seeing in Notting Hill Housing what the Tories really think of “non-market” family friendly policies and basic protections for staff that face redundancy or compulsory relocation? So much for caring, compassionate “mend broken Britain” Tories then?

Photo is from the UNISON Housing Association Labour Link meeting last week at the House of Commons after our meeting with Housing Minister John Healey. Some members present decided to present a socialist clench fist salute to Kate who we understand to have been a Revolutionary Communist Party supporter in the past. Obviously this was sometime before Cameron became her best prospect of becoming a Tory life peer .