A campaign for better pay and working conditions by Polish postal workers supported by the ZSP-IWA union is facing increasing repression. Following nation-wide protests, the government-owned postal office have sought to silence protesting workers and fired several of the organisers. In addition, they have brought a series of bogus criminal cases against members of our sister union, the ZSP-IWA, who have supported the self-organised campaign of postal workers. SolFed-IWA is in solidarity with postal workers in Poland. Stop state repression of workers now! An injury to one is an injury to all!

Watch the tenants from our dispute with G4 Lets explain that an Environmental Health Report shows that G4Lets neglected their legal decoration, fire, and pest control duties, then charged the tenants for decoration, fire, and pest control.

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Brighton Solidarity Federation has started a dispute with Town and City Residential Lettings, operating out of English Business Park, near Hove Cemetery. A tenant has been organising with SolFed after the agency failed to address severe mould and damp issues, which the tenant lost several belongings to, and then took the cost of necessary refurbishment and repair out of the tenant’s deposit. The tenant, a single mother dealing with anxiety, has suffered repeated harassment and bullying by the agency. This has come to a climax with the agency demanding at first £200 from the tenant’s deposit, arbitrarily raising this figure to £780, and then making a final, ludicrous demand for £1030.

A tenant has been organising with SolFed after deposit deductions were made from their joint-tenancy deposit, despite the fact they left the property in a clean condition. The deductions were unreasonable, not costed in enough detail, and, on top of this, service from the agency was poor throughout her tenancy. This even included not being provided keys when locks were changed during the tenancy.

Brand Vaughan’s response to the demands for £390 to be returned from the deposit, and for £541 compensation, has included making legal threats, as well as claiming that the problems with the tenancy were not their responsibility. The landlord of the property is in-fact Tom Ghibaldan, chief executive of Brand Vaughan. Deposit deductions claimed by Brand Vaughan were in the service of their own chief executive.

As the public campaign continues to grow, Brighton Solfed are being contacted by other local people who have had similar experiences of the mismanagement of properties by Youngs. In one instance, there were distressing and disruptive consequences for the everyday lives of a couple and their son.
A family living in Kemptown had to suffer raw sewage flowing through their home after unidentified damage to a pipe from flats above - and Youngs failed to investigate the damage until after that their floorboards were sodden and underfloor troughs were filled with dirty water. 

Friday the 26th January saw strikers from three disputes in Manchester stage a joint demo and rally. Hundreds of supporters joined the demonstration and attended the rally where strikers from Mears, First Buses and Fujitsu  gave an update on their long running disputes.

Mears Dispute

The Mears dispute involves 180 building workers employed by Mears to undertake housing maintenance work on 12,000 properties in Manchester. The contract was tendered by Manchester council.  The workers took 40 days of strike action last year over pay differentials of up to £3,500 and attacks on their terms and conditions. A further ballot saw an increased majority vote for further 49 days of action, due to end on February 8th.

As people may know the Solidarity Federation has been involved in numerous disputes involving wage theft. However just in case you were thinking that bosses stealing workers hard earned wages was just a British phenomenon we have just received the following request from our sister organisation in the International Workers Association Priama Akcia who organise in Slovakia.

We're calling our second demo against Youngs letting agency this Saturday, for instigating a revenge eviction against Patrick rather than fixing the serious problems with his flat.

In this short video, Patrick talks about what it's been like being a tenant of Youngs - you'll understand why we're calling for safe living conditions.

Brighton Solidarity Federation has started a dispute with Brand Vaughan, a large estate agency with branches in Hove, Kemptown and Preston Park. A tenant has been organising with SolFed after deposit deductions were made from their joint-tenancy deposit, despite the fact they left the property in a clean condition. The deductions were unreasonable, not costed in enough detail, on top of this, service from the agency was poor throughout her tenancy.

Along with the tenant, Brighton SolFed wrote to Brand Vaughan December 1st, explaining the issues and outlining options for redress. Brand Vaughan claimed the dispute was something they could not address, after they had opened up a TDS case without the tenant’s express permission. The tenant was wholly unsatisfied that months after the end of her tenancy, she had not been returned any of her deposit.