Council staff in Tower Hamlets went on strike today, after a colleague involved in campaigning against the transfer of council housing stock lost her job.
The half-day strike began at a lunchtime rally outside Tower Hamlets town hall, attended by around 100 protesters in support of Eileen Short, a council press officer and a key figure locally and nationally in opposing housing stock transfer.
Ms Short, a joint member of the National Union of Journalists and Unison, was told she was redundant as part of a review - despite there being four suitable vacancies she could be transferred to, according to union officials.
A Tower Hamlets spokesman said Ms Short's redundancy was "nothing to do with anything other than a council reorganisation".
But members of the Tower Hamlets NUJ chapel claim Ms Short, a longstanding member of the council's communication team, was victimised because of her campaigning activities.
Attending the rally ahead of this afternoon's strike, the NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: "It is deeply worrying that individuals acting peacefully on the promptings of their own conscience, as Eileen did, should have their livelihood threatened in this way.
"It is a matter of great principle that not only trade unionists but anybody who cares about our community and our rights as citizens must unite behind and fight."
As industrial action began in inner London, a similar dispute was resolved in Sefton, Merseyside, when Acas brokered a deal between Unison officials and employers, ending a three-month wave of selective strikes.
Employers agreed to reinstate one union official and scale down disciplinary measures against a further three, while a fifth who will not be reinstated is expecting a severance package.
Fifty-one MPs recently signed an early day motion in support of council staff who have faced alleged victimisation over their campaigning activities involved the transfer of council housing stock.
