Yesterday, on a day when ISS had summoned around 100 cleaners to present their immigration papers at their offices in Greenwich, activists from the Campaign Against Immigration Controls organised to hit back at ISS’s ongoing use of immigration legislation to crush the cleaners’ dispute.

Around 15 activists gained access to their Greenwich offices, ahead of the demonstration. By the time the demonstration of mainly RMT members arrived outside - megaphone blaring, horns blowing, banners waving - the doors of the building were propped open by a sit-down protest. Managers inside had to engage in arguments with protesters about the barbarity of what they're doing, were asked probing questions about their tactics. They had the pleasure of hearing chants - 'We are, we are the RMT' and 'ISS - stop the exploitation, stop the deportations!' - through the open door.

RMT cleaner reps arrived amidst the action, but were refused a meeting with the management, who told them that the members must go alone to present their papers.

The protest gave encouragement to the cleaner reps, who were pleased to see this vibrant act of resistance to ISS’s tactics. ISS were visibly scared by the confrontation, which showed them that the public eye is looking on them with disgust. The protest also disturbed any planned paper checks the management were intending to carry out for at least a few hours. The protest would have stayed even longer, if the police hadn’t moved it on. When the demonstration was dispersing, the police arrested one activist on a trumped-up charge of ‘common assault’ in what seemed like a case of the police acting under ‘third party pressure’!

If the demonstration didn’t make us popular with ISS, it obviously didn’t do any harm. ISS has agreed to meet with the RMT at talks at ACAS on Monday morning.
A big demonstration is planned outside ACAS offices, 9.30am Monday morning, opposite Borough Station. Make ISS pay up!