Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

International Support For Sacked UBS Cleaner

Peter Marshall | 20.03.2010 00:29 | Migration | Social Struggles

Around a hundred protesters came to the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in London on Friday evening, to call for the re-instatement of Alberto Durango, sacked in February for his union activities when he approached the contract company Lancaster over their cuts in hours for workers at UBS. London 19/03/2010
Pictures copyright (C) 2010 Peter Marshall, all rights reserved

Alberto Durango
Alberto Durango

Emergency demo at UCL Fri 26th March
Emergency demo at UCL Fri 26th March

UBS Stop cutting cleners wages
UBS Stop cutting cleners wages

Broadgate security ask protesters to move away
Broadgate security ask protesters to move away

Entrance to UBS kept clear by police & security
Entrance to UBS kept clear by police & security

FRFI banner
FRFI banner


The London demonstration was a part of an international demonstration against UBS, with other protests taking place outside their offices in 3 countries and 6 capital cities including Zurich and New York.

The police and UBS had agreed that the protest could take place on the wide pavement owned by the bank rather than the narrow public footpath that had left pedestrians and protesters at hazard from public traffic.

Several speakers criticised the Unite union for its lack of support for the cleaners in their disputes, and there were allegations that they were far more concerned with maintaining good working relationships with the companies that were exploiting union members than with standing up for workers rights. Despite this, they called for those present to support the official Unite dispute with BA and to go to demonstrate at Heathrow. The RMT union, which represents cleaners on the Underground has been far more supportive than Unite, and one of its members spoke at the protest. Several Unite members who support their fellow union members in the cleaners protests claim to have been victimised by the union.

UBS is now making huge profits and aiding and advising others with large fortunes to make excessive profits too, but has contracted with Lancaster to cut the wages of its lowest paid workers, the office cleaners and to deny them their rights to organise in the workplace. During the protest a letter was taken into the UBS offices outlining the details of the case and calling for the re-instatement of Durango and proper working conditions for the cleaners at the company. The protesters then occupied the steps leading up to the offices and continued their protest there, ignoring requests by the UBS security that they leave. The protesters were not obstructing the entrance to the offices

As a speaker from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism (FRFI) pointed out, UBS is also involved with running schools - 'academies' that pride themselves on promoting diversity and fairness - aims which seem a complete CONTRADICTION to the way they are treating their lowest paid and most vulnerable staff who are indirectly employed through Lancaster.

The UBS cleaners are a part of a larger struggle to get a London living wage (LLW) for all workers in London - a fight that has had the support of successive London Mayors - Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson. The LLW is a London-specific minimum wage, taking into account higher costs of living in the capital, and also includes minimum holiday and sick pay entitlement and the right to join and be represented by a trade union. The 2009 living wage determined by the Living Wage Unit of the Greater London Assembly was £7.60 per hour, £1.87 above the National Minimum Wage, and the 2010 figure will be higher.

Among those who spoke in support of Alberto Durango was Jerry Hicks, one of three candidates for the General Secretary of Unite in the forthcoming elections in September and October. Also speaking was Juan Carlos Piedra Benitez, another cleaner who has also been sacked for his union activities. A cleaner at University College London (UCL) he was sacked last September shortly after having been transferred there by the contractors Office & General.

Although several London universities have already become Living Wage Employers, others including UCL - along with rich bankers such as UBS - are resisting this, making use of companies such as Office & General who pay the national minimum wage. Cleaners get only this despite the very unsocial hours they are forced to work - often starting at 5.30am and also often suffer from poor working conditions with little concern for workers health and safety, and arbitrary management that fails to recognise basic human rights and dignity.

Demonstrations continue at UBS to call for the reinstatement of Juan Carlos, who has the support of both lecturers and students there. The next is on Friday 26 March at 1-2pm in UCL Main Quad.

More pictures on Demotix:

 http://www.demotix.com/news/281017/international-support-sacked-ubs-cleaner

and in a few days on My London Diary:

 http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2010/03/mar.htm

Peter Marshall
- Homepage: http://mylondondiary.co.uk

Additions

Protest in Zürich

20.03.2010 15:41




On Friday in Zürich, a few activists from RIO, the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization, protested in front of the UBS world headquarters for the rights of cleaners at UBS London.

Their signs read:
- For the rights of cleaners at UBS!
- Trade union rights for cleaners!
- For the re-instatement of Alberto Durango!

Then they presented the demands of the international day of action to a representative of the bank.

Wladek Flakin
- Homepage: http://www.onesolutionrevolution.org


IWW Edinburgh picket UBS in solidarity with victimised cleaners

21.03.2010 12:06


Fifteen IWW members and supporters in Edinburgh turned out today to support victimised cleaner Alberto Durango and his fellow workers who have faced cuts in their pay by their employer, Lancaster.

Alberto was fired by Lancaster for daring to organise cleaners and fight for better treatment for them. Lancaster are contracted by Swiss bank UBS for cleaning in London where these workers are facing attacks and intimidation from management.

The Edinburgh picket was part of a global day of action, with pickets in other major cities around the globe to show solidarity and to pressurise and embarrass UBS into ensuring the Lancaster workers are treated fairly.

Jon b
- Homepage: http://iww.org.uk/edinburgh


Comments

Hide the following comment

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech