Activists gear up for day of protest on May Day

Trade unionists around the country are organising to make May Day a day of struggle for workers in Britain.

Jacqui Freeman, a Unison union member at SOAS in central London, said, “A group of cleaners from SOAS met last week along with other Unison members from the university to plan a protest on May Day.

“The cleaners are fighting for a wage of £7.05 an hour, union recognition, pension rights, sick pay and 20 days annual leave.

“People have lots of ideas about how to make an impact. We are organising a May Day demonstration around the London university sites that employ cleaners from the Ocean cleaning company or Sodexho.

“We are organising a meeting next week to involve more people. We are inviting cleaners and other Unison members, students and lecturers to the meeting.”

A Unison member from Cardiff said, “The PCS union is holding a lunchtime rally in Cardiff and I’m helping organise a delegation of Unison, CWU and FBU members to go and show support.

“We had an informal union meeting last week because people are angry about changes to our car allowances.

“I spoke about going to the rally to support the PCS and there was a brilliant response.

“I am planning to put posters up around work to let people know about the rally. I think people will take the opportunity to support the PCS strike.”