Newham Unison Members Strike in Defence of Branch Chair Michael Gavan

Lobby disciplinary hearing:
1pm, Mon 19 November
East Ham Town Hall (East Ham tube)

Please bring banners and delegations

Mass walkouts close schools and shut down services

Up to 2000 UNISON members walked out on Wednesday in support of our campaign to stop the council sacking our branch chair Michael Gavan. The walkout followed an 85% vote in favour of the strike. Schools and offices closed as hundreds of pickets stood outside the depots and offices turning back many of those who had arrived for work. A major conference for the elderly was cancelled when there was no one left to run it and phones went unanswered across the council.  Many services were kept running on a skeleton basis by bussing around agency and non union staff.   

“All of us came and stood on the picket lines,” said one worker from Salisbury school, “We wanted to show our support for Michael. He has represented us and we are not going to let the council sack him.”  The picket line, like that outside many schools made up of low paid teaching assistants, was lively and exciting. No one crossed.  Around 30 teaching assistants had joined up to the union in the two days before the strike—calling into the union office saying they wanted to the action.   At the refuse and cleansing depots, solidarity was shown by members of the TGWU section of UNITE who refused to cross picket lines—with many turning up for work, turning back despite managers trying to bully them into work.  Picket lines rapidly swelled into protest demonstrations across the borough.

Migrant workers were among those who joined the union or turned back when they met the picket lines. “People from social services that you don’t normally get on the picket line were there because they know that the person you can rely on is faced with the sack,” says Gloria Hanson the Branch Treasurer. Parking attendants were among those in privatised sections who began talking to union reps about organising for union recognition. “Its time we got the union bug,” said one. “We don’t have representation and they have not been paying us for our overtime and if we are sick. We need to be like you”.

Around 250 pickets plus delegations from other unions joined an emotional lunchtime rally to support Michael. Vicky Easton, head of Greater London Region Local government, joined picket lines early in the morning and later told the rally, “This is not as the council say an employment issue. This is an attack on our trade union. These are trumped up charges. We can’t allow our elected reps to be treated in this way. We have to do everything we can to stop them.”  An emotional standing ovation greeted Michael when he pledged to continue fighting for the members who elected him. He told the meeting, “They say I represented the interests of my members instead of the council—well I am proud of that. What this is really about is privatisation and I will never give up fighting to stop our public services being put in the hands of the profiteers who won’t deliver any kind of decent service to the people who most need council services.”

The meeting pledged to continue the fight— to step up strike action, hold more lobbies and pickets and to demand that all funds were withdrawn from Labour until Michael is reinstated.

"We are All Michael Gavan" - lobby greets Michael’s hearing

A mass of Michael Gavan’s greeted managers at a hastily organised lobby of Michael’s disciplinary hearing on Thursday, following the suggestion by one of the strikers at Wednesday’s strike rally that we should “do a Spartacus” in response to the council’s attempt to isolate and pick off our union representative. Around 75 reps covered their faces with pictures of Michael and held up placards saying “We are all Michael Gavan” and “if you want to get at Michael you have to go through us”.

The hearing, at which the council’s case proved to be as weak as the union had always known it was, has been adjourned until 19th November.