Ealing Citizens secure 90 local jobs and commitments for thousands of new living wage roles.

Ealing Citizens, an alliance of 8 organisations that are part of West London Citizens, representing 8000 local people, hosted a Living Wage, Employment and Green Jobs Fair at St Anselm’s Catholic Church, The Green, Southall on 15 November.

More than 200 local people attended and had an opportunity to meet with local employers who had 90 vacancies to fill now and find out about training, upskilling and work opportunities.

Cllr Bassam Mahfouz, Ealing Council cabinet member for decent living incomes, shared Ealing’s Plan for Good Jobs campaign outlining the council’s commitment to help the local economy recover from the economic impact of COVID-19.

Ealing Citizens’ plans to double the number of local London Living Wage employers. Cllr Mahfouz committed to hosting a Living Wage Round Table in the first 3 months of 2022, and 8 local employers agreed to join. In addition, Cllr Mahfouz agreed to work with citizens in the boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Brent, on making the biggest construction site in Europe, Old Oak Common Development, into a Living Wage zone, providing 56,000 new jobs.

Heathrow Airport, a major West London employer, was not present at the event and local community leaders urged them to set a date to publicly fulfil their pledge to pay their workers the London Living Wage before the end of 2022.

Citizens UK have been campaigning for London to become a Just Transition city, aiming to ensure that new green policies benefit low-income communities, who often face bear the brunt of the significant effects of climate change. The creation of 60,000 new green jobs in London, that pay the real Living Wage, is essential to this aim. City and Westminster College and West London College joined the event to share how they are training local people for Green Jobs.

Father Jovito D'souza, priest at St Anselm' Catholic Church and member of West London Citizens said; “People in our community are suffering because we are out of work, and our jobs don't pay us enough to support our families. But we didn't want to complain, we wanted to take action. Our vision is of an Ealing where everyone has a well-paid sustainable job. That is why we are working with Ealing Council to get local people back into jobs and encourage employers to pay the ethical London Living Wage to their staff."

Jackie Ashmenall, lay Chair of the Ealing Deanery Synod and member of West London Citizens said; “In 2018, Heathrow Airport invested in the local community by accrediting as a real Living Wage provider. We know aviation has been badly hit by the pandemic, but now it is time for Heathrow to fulfil their promise and pay all of their staff the London Living Wage before the end of 2022.”

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, Cabinet Member for Decent Living Incomes at Ealing Council said; “Ealing has had one of the highest furlough rates in the country, with Southall being one of the hardest hit parts of the country. As part of our Plan for Good Jobs, we’re keen to ensure residents hardest hit by the pandemic have the chance to retrain and get into sectors and jobs they may never have considered before.

“A key element of this is to raise the bar on the types of jobs we have within our borough and so it was great to get commitments on the evening to create even more well-paid London Living Wage jobs in our borough. I would like to thank Ealing Citizens for the chance to work with them to deliver a jobs fair that focussed on the importance of creating green, well-paid jobs in Southall. I look forward to continuing to work with them and to hosting a round table event next year on the Living Wage.”

Contact: Daniel Mackintosh, Lead Organiser for West London: Daniel.mackintosh@citizensuk.org / 07495 724658

About West London Citizens

West London Citizens, a Citizens UK Chapter, is an alliance made up of 6,000 local people from our member institutions, including schools, universities, trade unions, faith groups, charities and community groups. Together, we organise and campaign on issues affecting our local communities. We have had many local wins since our founding in 2005, including having successfully campaigned for Heathrow Airport and Westfield Shopping Centre to become Living Wage employers, as well as started the Mass for Migrants movement in 2006 – which continues to this day.

About Citizens UK’s Just Transition campaign

What do you mean by a ‘just transition’?

Some talk about a Just Transition as one that moves to a low carbon society, whilst ensuring job opportunities for all - including those currently in carbon intensive industries. 

We consider a Just Transition more broadly: an effort that simultaneously tackles our carbon emissions and addresses inequality and social justice by ensuring that low-income communities benefit first and most from new climate policy.

What qualifies as a ‘green’ job?

A sustainable and just economy will need to prioritise and grow a broad range of low carbon professions - from those linked to renewable energy to care work. For this campaign, we are focussed on jobs that will directly reduce carbon emissions in the short term, for example those linked to low carbon transport, housing retrofit or restoring nature. 

These jobs will be varied: some hands-on, others office-based, some for those at the start of their career, others for those re-training. This is to ensure our 60,000 figure is targeted and can be more easily measured against in the future. We support efforts by others to focus attention on other jobs essential to a just green future.

What does a ‘good’ job/apprenticeship mean?

Our campaign’s listening has shown us that, as well as focussing on the number of new jobs and apprenticeships, it’s important for the Mayor to focus on the quality of these new roles.

Job quality means different things to different people, so we are calling on the Mayor to create a ‘just transition taskforce’ - incorporating employers, civil society, unions, the Living Wage Foundations, and similar organisations to create a vision for what good green jobs should entail; and potentially devise a process of certification for ‘just transition champion’ roles based on this.

This could mean roles must be paid at least the living wage, or involve a certain degree of training, to be qualified as ‘good’ green jobs or apprenticeships. We understand that inputs from a broad range of Londoners and representative groups are required to define this further.