Workers strike at Jewish Care home
Sage – one of the many private care homes across the country – runs a Jewish Care home in Golders Green. Covid-19 has placed intolerable burdens on staff as they deal with the suffering and deaths of residents who had become friends and unable to call on the support of the residents’ families.
On 4th-8th February workers at the Sage Jewish Care home in Golders Green will walk out for a second strike. For some months they have been trying to negotiate a London living wage with the trustees. Despite long service staff are paid no more than £9.60 an hour. They are demanding £12 per hour, parity with NHS annual leave and sick pay entitlements, enhanced payments for unsocial hours of work, and for recognition of their chosen trade union, United Voices of the World (UVW).
Says Andrene, a care worker at Sage for the past 17 years “None of us has done anything like this before, and at first, we were nervous. I must’ve phoned Molly [a UVW organiser] about six or seven times asking: “Am I doing the right thing?” I felt scared, because when you speak up in SAGE, you’re perceived as a bad apple. That said, the Jewish community is behind us – families have sent us their support for and solidarity with the strike
Here is how you can support Sage workers
1) Contact your MP calling on them to support the strike.
http://www.uvwunion.org.uk/mp/mp-sage/
2) Use the UVW’s letter writing tool to send a message directly to Sage's trustees calling on them to meet the workers' demands
3) Donate to the workers' strike fund.
Posted: 26 January 2021
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