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In the London Borough of Wandsworth, there are at least 4000 children under five whose parents both have to work. But Wandsworth Borough Council have places for only 46l of them - the rest have to use what private facilities there are.
Eveline Day Nurseries Ltd is a chain of seven private nurseries in South London, run on ed for 29 January. The compMontessori system - this appar- of the union membership, and ently allows them to collect over £2000 a week in fees and spend it on too few staff, paying them insulting wages, supplying too few materials and offering no training.
NURSES Last February two nurses at the Eveline Day Nursery in Balham were sacked for trade union activity. They had been working a 40-hour week, with no proper breaks, for £20; the child /adult ratio was 16:1, although the legal maximum is 8:1. The facilities for the children and staff were unworkable - 8 paintbrushes between 20 children, and a few books or toys; no training was offered to the staff. The children's afternoon nap was a compulsory sit-down with heads on arms; floor were unprotected stone - one child fell and cut his head badly, but was left sitting in a chair, as staff could not be spared to take him for hospital treatment. Parents were refused access to the nursery. Children were forced to sit for long periods of time doing little or nothing There were no Monterrori-trained teachers at all. It was against these conditions that the two nurses, Peggy and Anna, were protesting The management was unsympathetic, so Peggy went to the Department of Social Services for advice. Peggy and Anna then joined the General and Municipal Workers Union and recruited two more nurses; the first union meeting was plannwhat the management calls the any was informed by the DHSS on 30 January Peggy was sacked with a week's notice; Anna was sacked on the spot a week later. The reasons given were that the girls were 'unsuitable' and too inexperienced' - yet one of them was replaced by a less experienced 16 year old girl.
LAW CENTRE Peggy and Anna then discussed the case with Balham Law Centre, and as a result, the Balham Nursery Action Group was formed at an open meeting held on 13 February. About 40 people turned up including a woman from the DHSS, about 20 parents, and ten "lackeys from the nursery management. The latter attemtried to pose all the issues in personality terms. In fact the nursery secretary in a fit of pique blurted out the reason for Peggy's dismissal - "We had to sack her, she was too miliIt was quite obvious at this necting that many parents we- ion, parents have diverse polown place there, and anxiety that the nursery might be closed down. The company reacted quickly by launching its own and a great deal of suspicion; campaign and called a meeting in this case they had seen two which practically all the parents of their colleagues dismissed attended.It started a smear cam-for union activity, and some of paign against the two nurses, and articles appeared in the local press, mostly portraying them as trouble-makers and agitators. The GMWU answered by lodging a complaint with the Industrial Tribunal Court, calling a picket to demand reinstatement of the nurses, and threatening to black services to the nurseries. The Tribunal dismissed the GMWU's case but as a result of the campaign a parent/staff association was set up, and the struggle for better nursery facilities con- ilisation for the picket was left.
A campaign of this nature has very special problems. It is not seen as an 'industrial" dispute, and the fact that children are involved introduces an emotive element. In additso heavily on the nurseries. The nursery staff are mostly young with no trade union experience them stood to lose both job and home, since the company supplies a certain amount of accommodation. The nursery management were quick to recognise the threat of unionisation and to organise against it; whereas we failed to relate and explain to the parents where their real interests lay, and thereby gaining their support and solidarity from the outset. The GWU did not succeed in gaining the nurses confidence, and the actual organisation and mobto the intervention of NUPE, (The National Union of Public Employees), the South London Working Womens Charter Group, and Wandsworth members of the National Union of Teachers.
Although the dismissal of the case by the Tribunal actually sig nalled the effective end of the reinstatement struggle, an ongoing campaign for improved nursery facilities has now been established.
Shoshanna Morris
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re afraid of involving themsel- itical and social perspectives, ves in any campaign against the and they tend to shy away from nursery for fear of losing their involvement because they rely