Sparks And College students – On Wednesday ninth November there have been protests by electricians in Southwark and police shut down most of central London to harass college students as they marched to the Moorgate constructing of London Metropolitan College.
Sparks At The Shard – London Bridge
Round a thousand electricians – ‘sparks ‘ – marched to a protest rally on the constructing web site for the Shard in a protest led by Unite towards plans by 7 main employers to tear up nationwide agreements and impose worse circumstances and pay cuts of at the very least 26 %.
In 1968 main employers and the commerce union had come collectively to arrange the Electrotechnical Joint Business Board (JIB) to set requirements for {the electrical} business and to offer a method of resolving the frequent disputes which have been then happening by bringing collectively each side in committees with equal illustration. JIB has additionally developed to set the requirements for employment, welfare, grading and apprentice coaching within the electrical contracting business.
In Could 2011 seven main firms – Bailey Constructing Companies, Balfour Beatty, Tommy Clarke, Crown Home Applied sciences, Gratte Brothers, SES and SPIE Matthew Corridor – introduced that they might withdraw from the JIB pay and circumstances deal and impose their very own settlement generally known as BESNA (Constructing and Engineering Companies Nationwide Settlement) which might allow them to switch expert staff by these on decrease grades.
Unite focused Balfour Beatty for motion as the biggest firm and ring-leader within the employers group and on the rally Unite Basic Secretary Len McCluskey introduced that the union had given discover as we speak of a strike poll for its members employed by them. The Shard was certainly one of Balfour Beatty’s main tasks on the time, together with Crossrail.
A number of hundred of the electricians had earlier held a protest in Bishopsgate and visited the Occupy London web site at St Paul’s Cathedral earlier than marching to the rally on the Shard. Police had tried to cease them at varied factors on their march and so they arrived with a big police escort.
Earlier than the official rally began there have been speeches by rank and file commerce unionist. They have been adopted by a number of Unite audio system with a ultimate tackle by McClusky. Round 600 of the sparks then marched off to assist the scholars who have been protesting in London however police closed each London Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge and stopped them.
Following this and additional actions by rank and file electricians Balfour Beatty, the biggest of the companies in Febraury 2012 introduced it was going into additional talks with Unite on updating the JIB agreements and this was the tip for BESNA.
Extra footage on My London Diary at Sparks At The Shard.
College students March In opposition to Cuts & Charges – Bloomsbury to Moorgate
Regardless of police makes an attempt to impress them, greater than 5000 scholar protesters marched largely peacefully towards charges will increase and cuts in companies. Most saved to the agreed route, from London College in Bloomsbury to London Metropolitan College in Moorgate, which was lined by 1000’s of police.
College students are indignant in regards to the excessive charges and the cuts in schooling – notably the lack of the Academic Maintenace Allowances and varied cuts in service, however within the early levels of the march the protesters have been in a relaxed and constructive temper, many speaking to and joking with the police who have been accompanying them.
After the police failure to cease some scholar charges protesters who had stormed the Tory HQ at Millbank in 2010, the police this yr have been decided to manage occasions. To take action they closed all main roads in central London for hours earlier than the march started, making it exhausting for a lot of to get to the protest. There have been no buses and I needed to stroll two miles from London Bridge and so arrived after the march began.
I might hardly see the marchers as they got here down in the direction of me on Shaftesbury Avenue, with a line of mounted police in entrance, adopted by a number of strains of police on foot. Behind them have been march stewards after which the primary banner, behind which was an enormous crowd of scholars and supporters carrying placards.
The march continued however with sporadic stoppages by the police for no obvious purpose. However after it had come up Strand to Aldwych a snatch squad of police bumped into the centre of the march, grabbed a number of of the various black-clad protesters, and dragged them throughout to the facet of the highway. Many round them, together with me, have been roughly pushed apart and I acquired a painful kick in my leg from one officer.
The gang have been angered and gathered across the police for a while however have been persuaded by stewards to maneuver on. Individuals have been additional angered after they heard that the group of 600 electricians had been prevented from coming to affix them, and the group took up the mantra “Free the sparks!” However most then continued alongside the agreed route up Fetter Lane.
Police then determined to try to cease the march in what I commented “appeared like an act of full folly“. Slowly the marchers pushed the police again from the confines of the road to the open space of Holborn Circus. Right here “proceedings reached a state of comedian chaos, with senior officers shouting orders to small strings of police to cease the protesters; whereas they have been grappling with the few inside attain the remainder of us merely walked by means of the large gaps between these strains.” Holborn Circus was actually a circus.
A big group of scholars then ran previous the police horses on Holborn Viaduct the place they’d withdrawn from Holborn Circus after a number of riders had misplaced management of their horses and I ran with them. Police managed to cease the remainder of the marchers on Holborn Viaduct and after a brief wait individuals determined to proceed alongside the agreed path to Morgate with out them.
I went on to speak with the individuals at Occupy Finsbury Circus who have been apprehensive by the large police presence and felt they is likely to be evicted. I assumed it unlikely as with 5000 scholar marchers round it will be prone to spark a riot. I left and walked throughout the Metropolis the place main roads have been nonetheless closed to visitors and remained so for some hours. Later I watched movies exhibiting college students being kettled at Moorgate and people being attacked by snatch squads of plain garments police who had posed as protesters after I had left.
Extra at College students March In opposition to Cuts & Charges.
Tags: Balfour Beatty, BESNA, cuts, Academic Maintenace Allowances, electricians, EMA, Holborn Circus, JIB, Joint Business Board, Len McCluskey, London, London Met, London College, main employers, march, Moorgate, nationwide agreements, Occupy Finsbury Circus, occupy london, pay cuts, peter Marshall, police, police chaos, police shut bridges, police shut London, protest, Shard, snatch squads, sparks, scholar charges, College students March, assist the scholars, Unite
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