Labour Left Feeling Betrayed by Fiaz.
We suspect that there is someone on the top floor in Dockside who is beginning to rue the day she ever started to espouse her support for trade unions.
It's one thing praising unions when you are in opposition. It's quite another when you have to deal with their wage demands.
Fiaz is caught in a trap, that is partly, but not entirely of her own making.
She publicly proclaimed the virtue of bringing as many services in-house as possible. “I will end all further privatisation and outsourcing on day one.” In doing this, she undermined what was perhaps the largest move towards shared public/worker co-ops in the country. They, according to Fiaz were examples of privatisation.
One of the consequences of increasing the size of the in-house work force is that all of the wage settlements have to be met by the council tax payers of the borough. Alas, according to Fiaz, Newham simply doesn’t have the cash to meet the demands of the bin men.
In part, she has a point. Newham does not receive the inner London enhancement that neighbouring boroughs to the south and west receive. But she is also responsible for the poor financial planning that has seen the council’s reserves drop precipitately during her tenure.
Now she has to deal with problems on two fronts. Staff demanding substantial wage increases against a background of high cost-of-living increases and high inflation; and former supporters in the Labour Party who now demand that she meets the bin-workers’ demands in full. Link
What is the position of the Labour Party in Newham? Is the Community Wealth Building dead, or was it only ever a political fig leaf that no-one ever expected to deliver real results? What about our councillors? Will Labour councillors be allowed to discuss the dispute in the open, or will they be gagged? Again. The two constituency parties remain suspended, so don’t expect anything from them.
This is what Unite has said.