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300 workers protest Norwich City Council

George Deacon
15th September 2010 at 14:31
1 comment

300 hundred workers protest outside Norwich City Council: this is the future!

300 workers gathered outside of City Hall on Tuesday (14th) to protest the loss of their jobs. In advance of the anticipated Tory-Lib plans to cut jobs and privatise public services Connaught has reminded the people of Norwich why we must now Unite and Fight these attacks.

In the weeks ahead the murky business of awarding contracts to private companies to run our vital public services may find its way into the local press and possibly to the embarrassment to the majority labour group and its leader Steve Morphew. However what is clear is that the cosy complacent attitude of everything is for the best in the best of all worlds is now over.

Not one week ago Steve Morphew was quoted in the local press reassuring workers and tenants that their services and jobs would be guaranteed. Presumably the anticipated bail out by RBS bank was assumed to underwrite Connaughts financial difficulties. However the old certainties vanish in an instant. Now Steve Morphew had to face 300 angry workers protesting outside City Hall demanding to know what went on and to get their jobs back.

Electrician Roger Barney, who, over 32 years, worked for CityWorks when the service was run by the council, then CityCare and Connaught, was among the workers at the protest said; “I feel absolutely devastated and completely sold out by our council. I can’t understand how there can be two contractors who want the contract, but the council says it can’t agree a deal with one because they’ll face a legal challenge from the other. “...You cannot imagine how frustrating that is. We are like a family. We all know each other, and now all that is gone.”

Mark Holden, a gas engineer, who went to sign on yesterday morning, said: “It’s just a farce. The city council are hiding behind this procurement process. “As soon as this contract started we all said it couldn’t be done for the amount of money it was tendered for. “There are people who have worked to serve the tenants of Norwich for up to 30 years who have lost their jobs. Everyone is still really numb about it. “We just don’t understand what the delay is in getting another contractor to take over and in the meantime we have all lost our jobs.”

What is certain is that with the establishment of NCAC (Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts) workers throughout the county can now get organised to fight these attacks. The steering committee of NCAC meets for the first time tonight and top of the agenda will be the struggle of the 300 workers in Norwich.

No more cuts!
No more privatisation!
Take back failed privatised services into public ownership!

Tags: this time we will look the enemy in the eye (3)

Comments

on 15th September 2010 at 23:03, Marie Lynam said:

Hello George

I belong to the Kilburn unemployed workers centre re-started by the TUC. There are horror stories now for those who go and sign on.

Is there an unemployed workers centre in Norwich. If so, could you let me know their email?

I do not mean to say that the 300 workers of Norwich should accept their ‘sacked’ situation. I am sure the LRC is going to help, and that J. McDonnell will say something; and it may not hurt to try and contact Diane Abbott. I look forward to see a fuss made in the press and on radio and TV.

The solution, of course, is public ownership.
We need LRC leaflets on this subject. It is not enough to have coalitions against the cuts, although they are fundamental. The coalitions must have a political leadership, and that political leadership must turn its ‘guns’ towards Labour. If not, all manner of people join them in order to build their own organisations, and the effort finds little political expression where it counts: In, and at the base of, Labour.

I hope you are in touch with the LRC leadership and that, if you come to London, I may be able to talk with you.

Marie Lynam