Black History Month – ISS strikers lead the way

Why it is in all facilities workers’ interest for PCS members involved in the current ISS strike in London to win.

Every October, trade unionists and wider society celebrate Black History Month. It provides us with the space to reflect on the racism that Black people still experience every day, to celebrate Black leaders leading the fight against oppression and motivates us to fight to eradicate prejudice wherever it occurs.  

As Black workers, the most harmful effect of racism we experience can be at work. This can be overt but more often is institutionalised racism. That is why the current ISS strike by facilities workers is so important. If they win, all facilities workers win.  

PCS members employed by ISS are fighting back against the institutionalised racism they face from the civil service’s outsourcing model. The predominately Black and/or migrant workforce are demanding equal employment terms with their predominantly white civil service colleagues – the equality that existed before their work was privatised. They want to stop “feeling ill-treated as though on a plantation.”

This Black History Month it is worth reminding ourselves that the Machpherson report, into the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, described institutionalised racism as "The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people."
 

30 years on we must all support the ISS workers’ path to victory.