Barnet council is currently embarking on a mass privatisation drive (Future Shape aka easyCouncil); they want to stop direct employment of council workers and farm them and service delivery out to arms length companies such as Barnet Homes and to multinationals such as... Connaught.
Oops. Connaught, the firm that has the contract for council house repairs in Barnet, among other places, is going bust. What will happen to Connaught's local workforce (once TUPE'd over to Barnet Homes and then again to Connaught)? Hopefully, they will be brought back into the Barnet fold.
It's a worrying time for the Connaught workers, annoying for Barnet's council tenants, who have only an emergency repairs service (as I understand it), and alarming for all Barnet residents who care to think about it: privatising services is no guarantee of a reliable, cheap service, yet Barnet's Tories present it as the answer to all our prayers.
In fact, the Connaught story shows Future Shape happening in reverse, no bad thing!
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2 comments:
Vicky,
You naughty old trades unionist, maybe you should ring up Robert Rams(Bottom) and ask whether Connaught are a Starbucks or a Blockbuster?
Remind me to tell you next time I see you how another coffee chain is exploiting migrant workers, not paying them. You may also be interested to know what happened when I told them I was going to expose them and I didn't give a S**T if they sued me as they'd lose.
One thing that bugs me about the Trades Unions is that there are hundreds of thousands of people working for such shysters and the Unions should be out actively recruiting them. What truly amazed me was how quickly the company backed down when they realised they were dealing with someone who could expose them and who wasn't susceptible to bullying.
Nearly 10 years earlier, SOME of the workers, their unions and housing campaigners against the Privatisation of Barnet's Homes had argued the point you make, that privatising services was no guarantee of a reliable service and jobs. Are Councillors, Brian Salinger, M.Palmer and that odd Labour Councillor still around?
Barnet's Council Tenants and leaseholders should be alarmed about Future Shape, for it will take just a flick of a pen and only a discussion with Barnet Homes Board Members (the rest of us may have no say on the matter))for our homes to be privatised by Stock-Transfer to Barnet Homes or any other private landlord. According to the latest edition of Barnet Homes self-complimentary journal "AT Home", they are are also in the "employment advice business."
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