Hackney parking wardens on strike, February 2020, photo by Socialist Party

Hackney parking wardens on strike, February 2020, photo by Socialist Party   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Parking wardens in Hackney, east London began a two-week strike on 10 February demanding a £15-an-hour wage, improved sick pay and increased annual leave.

Crucially, the campaign is also demanding that the Labour council take the service back in-house from contractor Apcoa. Strikers marched to the town hall and demanded that the council intervene and take action.

There can be no hiding place for Hackney Labour councillors whose election manifestos promised in-sourcing and the strikers now want to see this happen.

The mayor of Hackney recently addressed the Hackney Unison annual general meeting and talked glowingly of how it is an in-sourcing council and that he had recently visited picket lines of contracted-out NHS workers.

He was clearly blissfully unaware that the next speaker was Unite regional officer Onay Kasab, invited to discuss the Apcoa strike. The opportunity was taken to remind the mayor of the dispute on his own doorstep but also that he must personally intervene. The meeting agreed a donation of £250 to the strike fund.

Donations to the strike fund: Please make cheques payable to Hackney Unite, forward to Onay Kasab, Unite, 33 – 37 Moreland Street EC1V 8BB.


The issues raised above are among the many reasons why it is important to fight for socialists to be in London’s City Hall. See a socialist manifesto for London and donate to the campaign for socialist policies in London’s May elections, at: www.londonsocialistparty.org.uk