A year is a long while to wrangle, though. By the beginning of 2008, people were losing heart. The trust refused to reinstate the careworkers' leave and salaries. Negotiations stalled.

In March 2008, key union organiser Carmel Reynolds resigned and returned to her native Ireland to live. She said she'd had enough.

Reynolds was replaced by Lango Gamanga, a charismatic, long-term carehome employee who had to try and motivate careworkers into further industrial action.

Things were made even more challenging by a Barnet council announcement that there were plans to terminate the lease for the residential care home on the Rosa Freedman carehome site.

Staff were terrified about the job implications of the closure, as well they might have been:

'The closure of the residential care part of Rosa Freedman could result in staffing issues,' noted a 6 December 2007 report to the council’s cabinet resources committee. 'Fremantle will be responsible for these issues under the terms of the staff agreement with Fremantle Trust and Catalyst.'

Catalyst is an organisation that provides carehome services in 'partnership' with Fremantle.

The partnership does not seem to have inspired confidence. The council admitted in that 6 December cabinet resources committee report that Catalyst was unable to perform within budget, and that the attempt to mitigate losses by cutting staff wages through a 'high profile change' had yielded thin results.

Council reports offer a grim catalogue of Catalyst demands for better financial settlements from the council, and of Catalyst's budgeting difficulties. They do not speak of a successful outsourcing project.

The careworkers wait to find out exactly how much the council pays Catalyst. They don't expect to see much of it.

'Fremantle doesn’t give a shit about its staff. It’s gone on for so long now. [The careworkers] are so demoralised. Some people have depression and stress.'
Careworker Sandra Jones, 2007.

Photo: Lango Gamanga