STRIKING University College London (UCL) and St Mungo’s workers united today in a joint protest targeting members of their employers’ governing bodies.

The homelessness charity’s staff are in the ninth week of an indefinite strike over pay, while UCL security guards are fighting “racist” fire-and-rehire tactics at the university.

They held joint rallies at a number of banks and offices in the City of London, targeting workplaces linked to St Mungo’s trustees and members of the UCL council over their refusal to engage with workers’ appeals.

The events, which included protests outside the Bank of England and the London Stock Exchange, the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Linklaters, were followed by the workers joining striking UCU lecturers.

St Mungo’s staff are represented by the Unite union, while the guards are members of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB).

UCL security guards, outsourced to subcontractor Bidvest Noonan, began 10 days of strike action last week over the plans, which they say will lead to 40 workers losing their jobs and the remaining 216 being forced to reapply for roles with far worse conditions and pay cuts of up to £13,500 per year. 

St Mungo’s workers went on strike after rejecting a “pitiful” pay offer, averaging at 3.7 per cent.

Strikers Gareth Davies said: “St Mungo's homelessness workers stand in complete solidarity with striking IWGB workers at UCL.

“They’re striking against a corporate culture focused on profits over people — and so are we.”

IWGB vice-president Maritza Castillo Calle, who used to be a UCL cleaner, said: “Over the past few decades, there’s been a trend of public-sector and charitable institutions shifting towards more profit-centric business models by corporate figures, who have come to dominate their governing bodies.”