“They’re using us to pay for the crisis.” That was how Maddy Cooper felt this morning, as she took her place on a picket line outside the Bidborough Street council offices in the London borough of Camden.
With local government workers across the country striking against the employer’s derisory 1% pay offer, members in Camden were already busy handing out leaflets at a number of sites as commuters made their way to work, and turning back lorries at a council depot.
A housing officer for “coming up to 20 years”, Ms Cooper noted that, “if MPs can get 11% and bankers can get huge, huge payouts, I just know there’s enough money for us”.
She went on to say that public service workers were undervalued.
“I don’t see there’s anything more important than what we do, looking after working-class families on council estates, the elderly, the disabled, those with mental illnesses,” she added with passion.
Sadia Iqbal, a social worker for 15 years, notes that, with the cuts increasing workloads, her job “has got more and more demanding”.
She is taking strike action for “a better pay increase. My pay has been frozen, but all my bills have gone up,” she says.
Outside the town hall itself, taking a breather from arranging the picket line, Vino Sangarapillai, a clerk for various council committees, said that all he wanted was “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,” adding that the 1% offer “doesn’t cover rises in the cost of living or reflect the valuable jobs that we do for society”.
And for Vanessa Mcleod, who has worked in sheltered housing since 1987, the strike isn’t about her own situation – “I’m fine,” she says – but about low-paid workers.
“They need more – especially those in London,” she explains.
“So I’m on strike to help my colleagues.”
These sentiments were echoed across the city.
On the picket line in Enfield, north London, for instance, Tracey Adnan, a teaching assisstant at a special needs school, explained: “I have had a 9% pay cut since 2010, my bills have continued to rise, and I’m finding it hard to make ends meet.
“Some of my colleagues are having to do two or even three jobs to make ends meet. In my line of work, it is mainly women and we are being very hard hit.”
And she added: “Many of the women I work with are often the sole earner in the family.”
Keep up to date: Our #J10 rolling blog
