South London

Ledbury Estate tenants and supporters demonstrated on Sunday 17th Sept after several days with no heating. Ledbury Estate flats in Southwark have been declared unsafe due to cracks in the 13 storey towerblocks, which the tenants have been protesting about for years, and Southwark Council has told the tenants they will need to be decanted so the blocks can be repaired. The cracks are big enough to see daylight through and are a fire risk as well as a risk to the integrity of the building.

The gas has been cut off as a safety measure forcing tenants to go to shower in a nearby leisure centre and their only cooking facilities are small two-ring mini cookers. Now with the onset of colder autumn weather there is no heating for the tenants at all as the electrical power supply cannot cope with high load so no fan heaters or plug in radiators are permitted. One block has already had an overnight total power failure.

The following is a personal account of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity by a member of South London Solidarity Federation. The author has made some additional points in response to comments which are included in the addendum below.

MCS is an adverse reaction to airborne chemicals, such as air fresheners, solvents, and scented cleaning products. Symptoms vary from nose and throat irritation, fatigue and headaches to full-blown immune system overload. It can be triggered by a one off or severe exposure to chemicals, pesticides or other toxins and become a long-term susceptibility to the low levels of exposure now common in many public spaces.

GMB and UNITE members who work on the Woolwich Free Ferry are taking strike action every Friday. Against a background of long-running health and safety issues, they are coming out in solidarity with a female colleague who brought a complaint about persistent sexual harrassment by her offce boss. She was then left facing him every day at work for 3 weeks.

It is a credit to the ferry crew that they didn't hesitate to take action to support their colleague, who after being subjected to unwelcome personal comments and offensive behaviour for over a year, had the courage to record and report these events, only to find herself vulnerable to further harassment.

The Solidarity Federation were delighted to talk to members of Disabled People Against the Cuts, Feminist Fightback, Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, London Campaign against Police and State Violence and Sisters Uncut in a discussion of direct action and strategy at our recent conference in London.

The groups came together to discuss their aims, tactics, difficulties and hopes for future activities. Members of the Brighton local spoke on behalf of Solfed regarding their experience organising around the hospitality sector.

Byron Burgers acted despicably when they collaborated with the Home Office to deport their workers during a fake training event on July 4th. After the story broke from Spanish language newspaper El Iberico a number of groups and unions with Byron worker members have organised and called for action against Byron (see list below)

In a joint leaflet we demand:
no more threats to staff by immigration enforcement!
no discrimination against migrant staff members.
no to exploitative pay and conditions.

South London Solidarity Federation would like to express solidarity with members of the Mexican Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion teaching union, who have faced violent attack by the police and state.

The union, which is made up of teachers from the poorer southern states, is protesting new mandated teacher evaluations. These it describes as ignoring the challenges of providing education in rural and underfunded areas whilst also enabling mass teacher layoffs. This is part of a wider programme of privatisation across Mexican education, removing the limited educational provision available to the poorest.

The Solidarity Federation today escalated it's campaign against wage thieves Jimmy's Restaurants, with a picket by the South London local of their Wimbledon restaurant.

Jimmy's owe their former workers in Brighton £1,500 in holiday pay and have failed to provide the workers with  P45s or pay income tax to the HMRC (despite tax being taken from their pay!) The manager of the Brighton branch has refused to engage with SolFed when confronted with this, insisting it is the responsibility of head office who never answer our calls and emails.

In response to this and following successful pickets in Brighton and Bath we today picketed the Wimbledon restaurant, handing out 240 flyers to let passers by know that the company engaged in wage theft. We received a positive response from those we talked to, with previous customers telling us they would not be eating at Jimmy's in the future.

On Friday 18th March, members of Solfed informed parents of Dartford Primary Academy, part of the Leigh Academies Trust, about the ongoing campaign to get Lydia’s wages back. Lydia worked for Kinder Sports, who are contracted by Leigh Academies Trust to provide Physical Education lessons and after school sports coaching. Lydia worked for Kinder Sports for 30 hours between 6th and 30th of October 2015 (including at Dartford Primary Academy) however she has not been paid for this work. We are supporting Lydia in demanding Kinder Sports pay her the full £360 she is owed.

Lydia worked 30 hours for Kinder Sports between the 6th and 22nd of October. Kinder Sports have repeatedly tried to weasel out of paying Lydia fairly and promptly for the work she undertook for them.

Lydia and South London Solidarity Federation are now calling for a communications blockade on Twitter against Kinder Sports for unpaid wages. Kinder Sports, run by Matt Longhurst, provide after-school sports activities and some school hours provision at locations around Dartford in Kent.

We are calling a communications blockade against Manpower employment agency who our Polish sister section is in dispute with. See details here and don’t forget to call and email. 

The action has been called as part of a week of action in support of our sister section, the Polish ZSP, who are involved in taking action within two Polish Amazon dispatch centres that Manpower hires workers for. The workers in these centres are paid 1/4 of the wage of workers in Germany carrying out the same job, are denied paid breaks during 10 hour shifts and receive no extra pay for working evenings and weekends. In addition there have been a series of late or incorrect payments from Manpower whilst pay varies between different centres and between directly employed and agency workers.