Westfield: Friend or Foe? That was the chant of the protesters at yesterdays White City action. Standing directly outside the gates to the Westfield development, a group of 50 protesters raised placards and cried out for guarantees from the shopping mall giants. Testimonies, to name a few, came from Andrew Slaughter, MP for Shepherds Bush; Intlak Al-Saiegh and Awad Abdalla, from the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre; Valerie Voak, from Our Lady of Dolours Servite parish; Tendai Sibanda, from St Charles Sixth Form, and many other local citizens who are concerned about the effects the development will have on the local community. Westfield responded on BBC news pledging to pay the living wage to all its recruits, but saying it could not speak for the stores in the complex. Mr Holberton, Westfield's spokesperson said they were also committed to employing locally, and has agreed to meet. West London Citizens are committed to ensuring that Westfield deliver for the local community and will not rest until they are guaranteed a meeting with Mr Lowy. Members are meeting very soon to discuss our next steps…

Members have voted to take direct action aimed at Westfield on Wednesday 18th July (5.30-6.30pm) in the form of a demonstration at the White City development site. The votes were taken both on 25th June at the Delegates Assembly and at a follow up meeting of the White City Action Team on 11th July.

Our Action Team have been trying to make contact with Westfield for some months but no longer get calls or emails returned. This suggests that their commitment in 2006 to work with us on economic justice guarantees for local people were not given in good faith. West London Citizens leaders have written to Michael Gutman, UK-Europe Managing Director, asking for a meeting with Steven Lowy, Group Managing Director on his next visit to London from Australia. For further details please read the press release by clicking here.

Michael Gutman, Managing Director – UK/Europe, of Westfield, the company which owns White City shopping centre, sent a long response to a letter signed by four WLC leaders: Fr Dermot MacNeice (Servite parish); Amina Osman (Somali Community Consortium); Paul O’Shea (St
Charles Sixth Form) and Daniella Fetuga-Joensuu (Chelsea Methodists). He said, “Westfield supports the objective to make White City the UK’s first living wage retail zone. Westfield also commits to pay the current living wage to all its onsite
employees as defined by the Mayor’s unit within the GLA.” This is a very important first step and represents significant
recognition of West London Citizens as an organisation. However the great majority
of service staff at the site (cleaning, security, car park attendants, etc) will not
be employed directly by Westfield. We still need to secure a clear commitment to guarantee a living wage for onsite contractors, and we’ll continue to press for that over the coming weeks. We are also talking to the company about many other aspects of the development which will impact the communities around it.
Westfield has recently taken control of significant parts of the Olympic City development in Stratford. The company’s
interests in London are expanding fast, and so is our interest in them. There is real potential for international links with other
organisations who have engaged with Westfield as we are doing. In 2003 on
‘International Justice for Janitors Day’ cleaners united in protest over Westfield's practice of contracting out cleaning
services to low-paying companies. Campaigners demanded a 'Clearance Sale:
Everything Unjust Must Go'. We are talking to people in Australia and USA about
working collaboratively for Living Wage standards in Westfield’s centres worldwide. here for a copy of our press release about our Westfield Action on the 17/7/07

Robin Derrett, Vice-President for Human Resources at Hilton in UK speaks at the WLC assembly

Our long campaign for vulnerable workers in London’s hotel sector is now paying off with Hilton’s high profile announcement at our assembly on 25th October that agencies are being phased out across the entire London region. The news has been picked up in a wide range of media outlets, most significantly Caterer & Hotelkeeper, the industry’s main trade publication. In late October the Hilton Group was finally sold to Blackstone, a leading private equity company based in the USA. WLC members wrote to John Studzinski, senior managing director at Blackstone, asking him to confirm that our agreement on Hilton’s London agencies would be honoured by Blackstone. Mr Studzinski called the London Citizens office to offer his firm support for this. He asked to be kept personally informed should we uncover further serious problems at Hilton hotels. Meanwhile Linda Bain, Senior Vice President, Global PR and Communications at Hilton faxed from New York to give further confirmation that the deal struck by WLC on agency worker will be honoured. The new post-agency regime has yet to be implanted so further challenges exist ahead.
On 30th November WLC members attend a seminar at hosted by the Mayor’s office to look at improving standards across the hotel industry in the run up to 2012.

West London Citizens call for fair pay for "vital" School Staff.

To read the article published in the Ealing Gazette click here.

WLC members make the case for the London Living Wage at Ealing's School Forum on Tues, 20th Nov (6-7pm). Do please come to support. At issue is the meals contract for primaries in Ealing. WLC hopes to convince head teachers, school governors, and councillors that the Living Wage is a timely measure to guarantee a high quality service delivered by motivated staff for the borough's children. All directly employed staff earn at least the Living Wage (7.20 per hour) but staff employed by Harrisons to prepare and serve lunches get 5.57 per hour. People doing the same work in other boroughs are far better paid. This Ealing injustice needs to be rectified.

Put Saturday 17th May 2008 in your diary now! The WLC Greener Planet Action Team is preparing an ambitious day for CITIZENS to peer into a bright, green future. Becoming a sustainable city depends on ingenious new technologies research. The 17th May will be a chance to find out what the future looks like and to celebrate green innovations of tomorrow. ‘London’s Green Future’ competitions are planned for primary, secondary and university students with prizes awarded on the day.  Watch out for more information in our next edition.

You are invited by the Independent Asylum Commission to a national CITIZENS event on Thurs, 29th Nov (7-9pm). South London Citizens’ first campaign was an enquiry into Lunar House in Croydon, a national centre for immigration processing. The enquiry uncovered serious problems with the service and facilities there. Thanks to SLC’s hard work and a strong relationship built with the Lunar House authorities, the great majority of these problems were resolved. Following that success a national CITIZENS enquiry was established, chaired by Sir John Waite & Ifath Nawaz, to conduct a nationwide review into the UK’s asylum system. To find out more and to give support to this important initiative, be at Lambeth Town Hall, SW2 on 29th Nov.

Watch this space