Brent Conservatives issue statement justifying keeping Butt's Labour administration in power

 

Stop Fire and Rehire ar Woodfield School in Kingsbury - support the strikers

 

One of the many strike days at Woodfield School last winter- strikers addressed by Daniel Kebede (NEU General Secretary) 

 

Strikes return to Woodfield School in Kingsbury following the Academy Trust that runs the school moving to Fire and Rehire support staff.  Fire and Rehire is the practice by bad employers of sacking staff and then re-employing staff  on worse wages and conditions of service. Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North, was a leading campaigner calling for the practice to be outlawed.

 

Woodfield, is part of a small trust called Compass Learning. The NEU members (there’s about 70 of them) were out on strike in earlier in the academic year as the school were planning to cut hours, and therefore pay,  for Lead Learning Assistants (support staff members). The teachers also struck to defend their colleagues.

A spokesperson for Brent NEU said:

 

After 13 days of the most fun and lively picket lines management were forced to agree to go ACAS. They spent a day there, but the best they could offer was free school dinners and few extra hours. But stuck to the plan to cut hours across the board. 

Our members described the offer of schools dinners as being like ‘throwing scraps to the dogs’. 

Lead Learning Assistants are responsible for supporting the behaviour of teenagers with very complex needs who can become highly disregulated and who often live with complex mental health challenges. They are highly skilled workers. 

After ACAS and second round of offering voluntary redundancies/flexible working management announced that they were moving to fire and rehire. We have rebooted and are ready to resume strike action on June 2nd. 

The trust have almost £4 million in the bank. The CEO is on £120, 000. They are choosing to break low paid essential workers, rather than cut what they are ‘top slicing’ for their salaries and comfy offices. 

The NEU has informed Compass Learning of a series of strike days throughout June and July starting on June 1st.

  

STOP FIRE AND REHIRE AT WOODFIELD SCHOOL

✍️Write to Chair of Trustees Sebastian Oram and demand an end to fire and rehire at Woodfields School in Brent: LINK



Share in your WhatsApp groups and join the picket line here:  HERE 

Wembley Park road closures & bus diversions from 11am tomorrow for League 2 Play Off Finals

 

Deputy Leader of Brent Labour Group protests to the Labour NEC over its ruling that no formal or informal agreement should be made with the Green Party

Cllr Gwen Grahl, newly elected deputy leader of Brent Labour Group  posted the following on Twitter earlier this evening, writing in a personal capacity.

I have today written to Labour’s NEC regarding advice received on forming an administration at Brent Council. Labour Groups should be trusted to make political decisions in the best interest of their residents.

 

Following the post Jake Rubin, Brent Cabinet Member for Communities, Children's Services, Employment and Climate Action tweeted his support:

I agree with this - I simply cannot understand why Labour’s NEC prevented Brent Labour Group from formal or informal agreements with the Green group in Brent, when the consequences for this were obvious

Brent Council Committee Appointments

 This is a selection of the Committee appointments approved yesterday. Note where there is a tied vote the Chair will have a casting vote:

 

Londoners mobilise against robotaxis as 150,000 private hire drivers fear for their jobs - Harlesden demonstration Friday afternoon

 A Waymo news report from the USA

One month after an incident in Harlesden, the mobilisation against Autonomous Vehicles is growing across the capital.

 

On Friday 22 May, a collective of concerned residents and workers will gather on Harlesden High Street by the Jubilee Clock at 5pm to mark a new stage in the campaign SAY NO TO WAYMO launched less than a month ago by two local mums, who became Green Party councillors on May 7th.

 

Members of ADCU (App Drivers and Couriers Union), campaigners of Pull the Plug - a movement to give ordinary people a say on how AI is tested and implemented.  Harlesden residents will gather to make their voices heard and say No to WAYMO.

 

WAYMO, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc - Google’s parent company, has been testing its robotaxis in the north west London neighbourhood of Harlesden and Stonebridge since the opening of its operations hub in Park Royal in April - and the presence of the oversized cars hasn’t gone unnoticed, particularly since April 22nd. On that day, a WAYMO AV breached a police line on Harlesden High Street. The incident was filmed by a bystander and went viral on social media, alerting thousands of Londoners to the presence of robotaxis in the capital.

 

In media reports, WAYMO claimed that the car was operating in manual mode “with a validation driver in full control” but the Harlesden incident - which has been classified as an AI incident by the OECD- was enough for Amandine Alexandre and Suzanne Gallagher, then Green Party candidates for the local elections, to do some research. They promptly decided to start a petition asking the Mayor of London to put the WAYMO’s trial on pause and, since then, have been on a mission to inform fellow Londoners about the risks entailed by the rollout of AV’s on our streets..

 

Amandine Alexandre, Green Party Councillor in Harlesden and Kensal Green, said:

 

The more we learn about those AI-powered vehicles and the more we are convinced that Londoners have nothing to gain from the introduction of robotaxis. Those oversized vehicles are clogging up our roads, collecting tons of energy consuming data and taking us one step closer to a future where human interactions become the exception rather than a rule.

 

For London’s estimated 150 000 private hire drivers, WAYMO is also a threat to their livelihoods as the AV company said earlier this year that they were aiming at launching a fully commercial service in London in September. “The fear of losing their income is a constant and growing worry at the back of drivers’ minds”, the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) said.

 

Cristina-Georgiana Ionitescu, General Secretary of the ADCU, added:

 

London cannot afford a tech-first, people-last experiment. Any move toward automation must start with rigorous, transparent safety standards, real-world environmental safeguards that reduce total vehicle miles, and protections against oversupply. Most importantly, there must be a just transition for drivers. That means legally enforceable job security, funded retraining, income guarantees during changeover, and a seat at the table for worker-led unions. Our message is simple: no rollout without public consent. And no future that leaves drivers behind.

 

Suzanne Gallagher, Green Party Councillor for Kilburn, concluded: 

 

We are not against innovation that improves our lives and our communities, but we are fiercely opposed to our city being used as a testing ground for Silicon Valley experiments. Earlier this year, New York paused WAYMO's permits and halted further driverless trials. It is time for Mayor Sadiq Khan to follow the lead of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and prioritise Londoners’ jobs and public safety over Big Tech’s extractive business model.

 

Petition on 38 degrees :

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/harlesden-says-no-to-waymo

Brent Labour Group's statement on new minority-led administration

 

Greens hail first Green Manifesto win with all-party support for a Housing Scrutiny Committee

 

 

From Brent Green Party:

 

This evening the Green Group proposed an amendment to the constitution to adopt a new scrutiny committee in Brent. 

Scrutiny is one of the vital checks and balances in local government, where Cllrs hold officers and cabinet members to account and work to get the best outcomes for residents.

London boroughs typically have three to five. Brent has two. This is not enough time to engage properly with all the important work that the Council does. 

Housing is under scrutinised, and is an area where numerous external bodies have called for change. Brent spends £100K a day on temporary accommodation a day. The Regulator of Social Housing gave Brent a ‘serious failings’ grade, and complaints upheld by the local government and social care ombudsman have doubled. 

This new housing scrutiny committee will give adequate time and attention to this vital area in Brent’s remint. It was a key item in our manifesto. 

We are delighted to have received unanimous support from all parties in approving this amendment and we hope that this signals a desire for cross-party collaboration in the best interests of all our residents. 

Despite the stich-up we saw this evening where the Conservatives did a deal with Labour to support their minority administration, multi-party politics in Brent is here to stay. Voters are moving away from the two-party system and all four parties in Brent are going to have to collaborate, seek consensus and work together for better outcomes for residents.

 

The proposal will be taken away by officers who will work on plans for its implementation to be brought back to the July Council for consideration,