Trade unionists protested outside the Chester office of a national company in solidarity with striking Doncaster care workers whose wages have apparently been slashed by up to 40%.
Members of West Cheshire Trade Union Council gathered outside Care UK in Sealand Road, claiming managers from the Chester base had been drafted in to cover for striking colleagues. They held placards which read: “Stop the Chester strike-breakers” and “Fighting for a living wage”.
Spokesman Ray McHale said: “As a trades council, we are offering support to striking workers in Doncaster who work for Care UK. They have had their jobs out-sourced by the council and as a result are facing up to 40% pay cuts. There’s a new start rate of pay for staff of only £7 an hour. They’ve been trying to resolve that for a number of months now and they’ve been taking bouts of strike action to try and get the company to negotiate with them.
“When we heard some of the Chester managers were travelling to Doncaster to cover for the strike, we decided we ought to come and protest here and to raise the whole issue of local pay in the care industry. Care UK are one of the companies used by Cheshire West and Chester Council to provide home care, again that’s another area where council jobs have been out-sourced to private companies, wage rates have fallen tremendously, they are 95% women workers doing care jobs, so as a trades council we thought this was something we could do locally to show our support.”
Care UK spokesperson said: “Care UK believes that Unison’s immediate call for further strike action, within hours of today’s return to work, is both unnecessary and irresponsible. The strike has only been supported by 15% of the workforce in the Doncaster service.
“Those colleagues transferring to Care UK from the previous provider have maintained pay rates at around 50% higher than care workers in comparable services. Their demand for a further pay increase of up to 10% is simply unaffordable when the council has to make savings of more than £100m. No health or social care service is able to make pay increases at this scale at the present time.
“Care UK’s approach in Doncaster has protected all the jobs within the service at a time when a further 1,000 jobs are being cut within other council services.”
