London Mayor urged to support striking workers who help the city’s homeless

Unite union demo on Monday, will urge London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to intervene on behalf of strikers at St Mungo’s homeless charity.

Workers begin their second week of a month long strike which began on Tuesday 30 May and ends on Monday 26 June.

This year, City Hall gave the charity an extra £2 million in grants while St Mungo’s are attempting to force poverty wages on their own street workers.

Workers at the homeless charity St Mungo’s are on a month long strike in protest at the pitiful 2.25% wage hike offered by the homeless charity. Fury amongst the workforce has ensured solid support for the strike action.

Many of the workers are now in fear themselves after being unable to pay their rent or mortgage on their current poverty wages. After tax and deductions frontline workers take home less than £20,000 a year.

Unite strikers will hold a protest at London City Hall on Monday (5 June), demanding that Sadiq Khan use his influence with the employers at St Mungo’s. They need some straight talking from the mayor demanding that St Mungo’s pay decent wages and drops its union busting antics.

St Mungo’s refuses to share its full accounts with Unite, but it can’t hide its annual audited reports, which have shown a cash balance of around £22 million for two years in a row, with reserves well above the charity’s target.

Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham said: “Unite members at St Mungo’s are on the frontline fighting for the homeless. But the Mayor’s generous funding for rough sleeping services is not being fairly shared with the very workers who deliver these crucial services for the city.

“Low pay means St Mungo’s workers are at risk of losing their own homes. Imagine that! A homeless charity confronting its own workers with ending up on the street themselves. So today we are calling on Sadiq Khan to intervene and call St Mungo’s management to account and demand they be paid a decent wage”.

The homeless charity still hasn’t even resolved a pay dispute going back to 2021 in the midst of falling pay and a cost of living crisis.

Unite regional officer Steve O’Donnell said: “City Hall isn’t getting the services the homeless desperately need because St Mungo’s won’t pay its workers fairly. So while CEO Emma Haddad continues to enjoy her huge six figure salary, the people who do the real work helping the homeless are on the picket lines.

“Management must realise that they cannot continue to ignore the workforce like this. This failing Charity needs to up its game.”