Report

UK: St Mungo's charity workers begin month-long strike

In the United Kingdom, strikes are becoming rarer, but social mobilization remains topical. For the past year, trains, schools and hospitals have been striking to demand better pay and working conditions. This Tuesday, May 30, it is a major player in the charitable sector that begins a month-long mobilization: the NGO St Mungo's which supports homeless people.

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Homeless person on the streets of London (Illustration image). Universal Images Group via Getty - Prisma by Dukas

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From our correspondent in London, Emeline Vin

At the foot of the headquarters of St Mungo's, with a hundred other employees, Zach Cochrane, marauder for the association, demands a 10% increase. Management proposes 2%. "We are facing an unprecedented crisis in purchasing power. Food prices are exploding. We are frontline workers, we want to be able to live in a city like London despite economic pressures

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Some have been working at St Mungo's for twenty years. Rye is barely 25 years old and helps homeless people reintegrate, but she fears for the NGO's future. "We have a great opportunity to train people, to give them useful skills, but these skills elude us because the salary is not enough to keep them staying. People stay at St Mungo's for a year or two, and change... And it is the most vulnerable who suffer."

Management denounces the impact of mobilization on beneficiaries. Colin, who works in an emergency shelter, acknowledges the difficulty of mobilizing in the charitable sector: "Going on strike is a difficult decision to make. We want to be at work and help Londoners most at risk, and instead we are there holding signs. But we have to defend ourselves, because who will support us, we employees."

The Unite union has set up a strike fund to support employees during these four weeks of mobilization.

" READ ALSO – United Kingdom: the staff in charge of passports are on strike in turn

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Read on on the same topics:

  • United Kingdom
  • Employment and Labour
  • Humanitarian
  • Unions
  • Poverty