Hundreds of trade union reps, members and activists took part in the 15th NSSN Conference last Saturday. After a video showing photos from countless picket lines with NSSN supporters bringing solidarity to, NSSN Chair Rob Williams opened up the event by giving support and solidarity to all workers in struggle in the growing strike wave as prices spiral and real wages fall. He said that in particular the RMT rail strikes both nationally and on London Underground had been a “game-changer” for the union movement, in giving workers confidence to fight. Workers can see the crises in Johnson’s Tory government, which has deepened in the last day with resignations of leading ministers. It is vital that the unions come together to co-ordinate ballots and strikes.
They listened to fighting national union leaders such as Sarah Woolley BFAWU General Secretary, Terry Pullinger CWU Deputy General Secretary Postal, Daniel Kebede NEU President and NAPO National Official Annoesjka Valent.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham and RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary Eddie Dempsey had to give their apologies but there were great speeches from their respective unions by Unite National Lead Officer Onay Kasab, striking Coventry bin worker Pete Randle and RMT National Rail and London Underground reps Paul Reilly and Noreen Hayes (both speaking in personal capacities). GMB Regional Organiser Helen O’Connor spoke about the strike action by outsourced South London hospital workers.
Watch the videos of the platform speakers here.
After the platform speakers, there was a fantastic discussion from the conference floor, where reports from countless disputes were given.
Conference agreed to build support for the NSSN Rally and lobby of TUC Congress in Brighton in September to call for co-ordinated action of unions across the private and public sectors against the cost of living crisis.
NSSN TUC Congress Rally & Lobby #StrikeTogether – 1pm Sunday 11th September Holiday Inn Brighton Seafront Facebook event
Please support this model motion and take it to your union branch and trades council and support the NSSN rally and lobby in Brighton:-
“This (union branch/trades council) gives our full support to workers being forced to take strike action against their employers backed by the Tory government. The cost of living crisis, fire and rehire tactics and other attacks by employers in pursuit of maintaining profits at our expense all mean workers are uniting to fight back.
We will continue to give our solidarity, building practical and financial support to all striking workers. The increasing number of disputes shows the immense power of workers. If unions act together, significant victories can be won. We also oppose the Tories’ threats to introduce further anti-union legislation to the raft of undemocratic restrictions already in existence and call on the TUC to co-ordinate opposition.
We call on unions in struggle to urgently come together to discuss and formulate a strategy to co-ordinate industrial action ballots and strikes.
We therefore agree to build the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) rally and lobby of TUC Congress in Brighton on Sunday 11 September behind this call.”
If you want to attend the NSSN TUC Rally and need transport, email us via [email protected]. To make a donation to the NSSN and/or get your union branch/trades council to affiliate for an annual fee of £50, either make a cheque out to ‘National Shop Stewards Network’ and post to NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE or pay online: HSBC – sort code 40-06-41, account number 90143790.
The NSSN sends solidarity greetings to everyone at the Durham Miners Gala this coming weekend Facebook event
Support the RMT as railworkers show their power
The NSSN stands in solidarity with the RMT and the 50,000 of its members who have taken strike action nationally and on London Underground, where they were joined by 1,000 Unite members.
Donate to the RMT National Dispute Fund
Mick Lynch pledges fight of a lifetime in battle cry at RMT AGM (5 July) – RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the national rail dispute was “the fight of our lifetime” at the union’s annual general meeting in Birmingham. Mr Lynch who has become a media sensation since a string of successful broadcast interviews, said these were the “toughest negotiations” RMT had ever been involved in. He accused Network Rail and the train operating companies of “doing the government’s rotten business and trying to cut thousands of jobs on the railways.” Read more
RMT refute strike day claims by rail industry and government (30 June) – General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “The claims made by the rail industry that support for our strike is waning are a fallacy. “The people who turned up for work were managers and contractors who were not balloted, in a vain attempt to break the strike. Despite attempts to undermine our action, the rail network barely ran any services and many of those were delayed on a tiny timetable. Without the work of RMT members, the railway network cannot run in this country. And we will take further effective strike action if a negotiated settlement on pay, and job security cannot be reached.”
Tories attack Welsh devolution law preventing agency workers from breaking strikes (30 June) – RMT has responded to Westminster attacks on Welsh devolution law preventing the use of agency labour to break strikes. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch “The latest attack on trade union rights is not just an attack on all trade unionists but an anti-democratic move to undermine Welsh devolution read more
Stop union victimisation: support the Coventry bin strike
The Labour council has disgracefully targeted Pete Randle, one of the senior Unite shop stewards. We call on all our supporters to support Pete and his striking members
Sign petition to Councillor George Duggins – Coventry Council: Reinstate Pete Randle, stop union busting, stop strike breaking and pay the rate
100 per cent strike vote by HGV drivers sends determined message to Coventry Council (7 June) – In a resounding show of unity and determination, striking HGV drivers in Coventry have voted to renew their strike mandate and continue industrial action into the summer. Putting pressure on Coventry council to settle with the union, 100 per cent of those workers who voted support continuing strike action until an agreement is reached. The HGV drivers have been on all out-strike since 31 January in a dispute over low pay and the council’s refusal to pay the HGV refuse lorry drivers the market rate for the job read more
Follow @UniteWestMids on twitter. Coventry bin worker’s strike fund – Unity Trust Bank; Name of Account: Unite WM/7116 Branch Coventry Local Government; Account number: 20302665 Sort code: 60-83-01; send messages of solidarity to [email protected]
Solidarity with GMB after Wealden bin strike victory but protest against picket line arrests
Wealden bin strike ends in seventh week with massive pay deal for workers (14 June) – GMB union members have today accepted an improved pay offer to end the refuse strike within Wealden District Council. Their employer Biffa’s latest pay offer will constitute a pay rise of more than 27 per cent for some workers. The total value of the settlement is worth between 24 and 27 per cent, depending on which job they do. Kerbside collections within Wealden will recommence from tomorrow [Wednesday 15 June]. The strike ends after 6 weeks and 2 days of action which garnered many messages of support and solidarity from local residents read more
Solidarity with GMB as arrests made on Wealden bin strike picket – The NSSN like many others in the trade union movement sent solidarity to the GMB after officers and a member were arrested recently. They remained in police custody for hours but were released later that day. This was an outrageous act. The NSSN will continue to support the GMB and its members in Wealden. Donate to GMB Southern region fighting fund. There is a protest to support the three officials who got arrested last week on the Wealden Biffa picket line. Three of them have been charged with obstructing a public highway and were ordered to appear at Hastings Magistrates Court on 29th June. The case was adjourned to Brighton Crown Court on November 16th – come and support the #GMB3
GMB responding to reports of arrests on Wealden refuse strike picket line this morning (27 May)
NSSN news
Get your trade union branch or trades council to affiliate to the NSSN – it only costs £50. Already affiliated? Please think about renewing it. Also, many of our supporters pay a few pounds a month. You can set up a similar standing order to ‘National Shop Stewards Network’, HSBC – sort code 40-06-41, account number 90143790. Our address is NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE. Feel free to use this affiliation letter.
And if you can, come to one of our regional Conferences. If there is not one in your area, get in touch to either assist in organising or have a speaker at one of your meetings or events. Contact Rob or Linda on [email protected]
Union News
RMT
Piper Alpha disaster anniversary (6 July) – RMT today made a statement on the anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster which killed 165 offshore oil and gas workers and two seafarers. This disaster triggered the Cullen Inquiry, which reported at the end of 1990. Prior to the launch of the Cullen Report, the Offshore Installations (Safety Representatives & Safety Committees) Regulations 1989 (SI971) were introduced. In September 1997, Step Change in Safety was launched by the UK offshore industry. Two years later, trade unions reported Shell for failure to comply with more than 60 of Lord Cullen’s 106 Piper Alpha recommendations. The effectiveness of the 1989 regulations have not been reviewed since 2011 read more
Maritime suicides are unacceptably high, and employers must act (5 July) – Maritime union RMT today highlights the high levels of suicides at sea and the need for strong trade unions in supporting the mental wellbeing of members. Suicide tragically remains a huge issue in the maritime industry. According to a study from the International Maritime Health journal, an estimated 5.9% of deaths at sea are connected to suicide. Yet, when ‘suspicious’ deaths that were possibly suicides were included, the percentage increased to 18.3%. There has been a dramatic increase during the Covid pandemic in the numbers of seafarers who suffer from severe depression (estimated at 25%) and the almost 6% of deaths attributed to suicide read more
Maritime Safety Week 2022 (4 July) – Maritime union RMT has been campaigning vigorously over the past few years for the safety of its members when undertaking lifeboat drills. RMT will shortly be continuing discussions with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to continue our discussions on lifeboat safety read more
Support the London Night Tube strike: every Friday and Saturday nights on Central and Victoria lines read more
ASLEF
ASLEF members on London Tramlink hold the line (28 June) – A group of people holding aslef flags and banners and signs which say ASLEF official picket. ASLEF members on Tramlink struck solidly today with dozens taking part in picketing at their depot in Croydon on the first day of their 48-hour strike. “Our members were magnificent today,” said ASLEF Executive Committee member Terry Wilkinson who joined the picket line, “their solidarity and determination are an inspiration”. Dozens of drivers took part in picketing from the early hours of the morning with some doing day long stints while other came along in shifts to show support. Almost half the entire workforce were on the line at different times today with many others arranging to join tomorrow. There was great support from passing motorists who hooted support and from members of other unions who refused to cross the picket line read more
Britain’s train drivers’ union announces strike action on Greater Anglia, Hull Trains and tram drivers in south London – ASLEF, the train drivers’ trade union, have announced strike action over pay:-
[i] Drivers at Greater Anglia will strike between 00:01 and 23:59 Thursday 23 June 2022.
[ii] Drivers at Hull Trains will strike between 00:01 and 23:59 on Sunday 26 June.
[iii] And tram drivers in south London will strike for a fair pay deal from 00:01 on Tuesday 28 June until 23:59 on Wednesday 29 June and from 00:01 on Wednesday 13 July until 23:59 on Thursday 14 July read more
Vote ‘Yes’ – we will not stand for years of pay cuts (1 June) – We continually visit branches, testing what we are doing, to avoid accusations of an ivory tower mentality or of being London-centric. Naturally, in a fractionalised industry, with the continual carving up of the franchise map, ‘one size fits all’ policies are difficult to deliver but aspiration cannot – and should not – be tempered but encouraged read more
TSSA
TSSA Ballot Results at CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway (5 July) – More than three hundred TSSA members at CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway have voted overwhelmingly for strike action and action short of a strike in results revealed today. The dispute with the train operators is over pay, job security and conditions with the union also balloting members at Network Rail and other train companies across England read more
TSSA Ballot Results – Avanti West Coast (29 June) – TSSA members in station grades at Avanti West Coast have voted overwhelmingly for strike action and action short of a strike in results revealed today. The dispute with the mainline train operator is over pay, job security and conditions and is the first set of results for the union which is also balloting members at Network Rail and train companies across England read more
Strike ballots at rail operator – Greater Anglia (24 June) – Rail union TSSA has served notice to ballot members at Greater Anglia for strike action and action short of strike in a dispute over pay, conditions and job security. The union is demanding a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies for 2022, no unagreed changes to terms and conditions, and a pay increase which reflects the rising cost of living read more
Strike ballots at rail operator – Trans Pennine Express (TPE) (23 June)
Strike ballots at rail operator – Great Western Railway (GWR) (17 June)
Strike ballots at rail operator – Southeastern (17 June)
Strike ballots in rail operators C2C, LNER and Northern (15 June)
TSSA ballots Network Rail members for strike action (14 June)
Strike action ballots for Cross Country, East Midlands Railway and West Midlands Trains (10 June)
TSSA brands government’s agency worker plans “desperate and dangerous” (28 June) – TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, has labelled the government “desperate and dangerous” after it published plans to change the law so that agency workers can be used to cover strikes. The idea was touted by Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, during rail strikes last week, and has now been laid before the Commons as draft legislation. The Welsh Labour government has already reacted by saying it would resist the imposition of the legalisation in Wales read more
Unite
Summer holiday shutdown looms at Southampton-to-Cowes ferries after huge vote for Red Funnel strikes (5 July) – Billionaire owners hold down pay while workers turn to food banks. All Southampton-to-Cowes ferries will shut down during summer holiday as workers challenge Red Funnel’s billionaire owners to get rid of poverty pay, Unite, the UK’s leading union, said today (Tuesday 5 July). Around 120 Red Funnel staff working on the Isle of Wight route, the majority of whom are on the minimum wage, voted by 88 per cent for strike action in a ballot with an 84.2 per cent turnout. The workers have rejected a pay offer of 4.5 per cent, rising to 6.5 per cent for the lowest paid staff, far below the real cost of living, currently running at 11.7 per cent and rising. Unite says the customer service staff, shunters and ratings are increasingly struggling to pay increased rents. Some are turning to food banks and ‘making the most’ of food allowances at work to keep bills down…The dates of the strike action, which will shut down all Southampton-to-Cowes ferry services, will be announced in the coming days read more
Heathrow major refuelling company AFS facing summer strikes as Unite members bid to end three year pay freeze (5 July) – Members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, employed by Aviation Fuel Services (AFS) Ltd at Heathrow airport have announced strikes later this month in a dispute over pay. The workers are angry at the company’s refusal to table a decent pay offer having gone without a pay increase for three years, which has seen their incomes fall by 15.5 per cent. Unite’s members at AFS recorded a 93 per cent yes vote for strike action on a 92 per cent turnout. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “AFS needs to offer its workers a decent pay rise. Oil and gas companies are making massive profits so AFS has the wherewithal to make a proper offer. AFS workers have sustained wage cuts for three years so it’s time AFS rewarded their sacrifices. “Our members at AFS will receive Unite’s complete support until this dispute is resolved and workers receive a decent pay increase.” The workers will stage an initial 72 hour walkout beginning at 05:00 on Thursday 21 July and ending at 04:59 on Sunday 24 July read more
North West facing Arriva bus strikes over ‘pitiful’ pay offer (5 July) – Bus workers employed by Arriva in the North West have voted in huge numbers for strike action in a dispute over pay. Unite, the workers’ union, says that all-out continuous strike action will begin on Wednesday 20 July. Around 1,800 workers returned a 96 per cent yes vote in favour of strike action on a 72 per cent turnout. Unite says its members are striking over a pitiful pay offer from the German-owned transport giant of just three per cent with no strings attached, or six per cent which included reductions in sick pay and loss of Saturday enhanced pay. Both the offers are far below the current real inflation rate (RPI) of 11.7 per cent and so constitute a pay cut read more
Royal Mail managers announce strike dates over cuts to 700 jobs and pay (5 July) – Unite says profiteering business `awash with cash’ but wages for some slashed by up to £7,000. Royal Mail managers across the UK are set to take industrial action in a dispute over further attacks on jobs and pay. Unite, the managers’ trade union, says that 2,400 managers will work to rule on 15-19 July, followed by strike action on 20-22 July over what has now been confirmed by Royal Mail as a plan to cut 700 jobs and slash pay by up to £7,000. Last year, Royal Mail paid out £400 million to shareholders and recorded a £311 million profit. The union says that its members have no other option but to take strike action as months of consultation have failed to persuade Royal Mail off a path which Unite says is a `ruinous’ and needless course given that the business is `awash with cash’. Unite is calling on Royal Mail to recognise that it has to restore jobs because the proposed cuts are so savage they will destroy the service read more
Workers end strike action at Interface, Craigavon after winning inflation-busting pay increase (4 July) – After one week of strike action, union members vote overwhelmingly to accept 15.25% percent pay increase. Unite members working at flooring manufacturer Interface Europe, based in Craigavon, have voted overwhelmingly to end their strike action after receiving a much improved pay offer from management. The offer comes at the end of a first week of strike action which shutdown production at the site. The pay offer includes a 15.25% percent fully-consolidated increase – which even with surging inflation standing at 11.7 percent according to the retail price inflation index (the measure of inflation closest to that experienced by workers) – translates into a real-terms improvement of more than three and a half percent read more
Bosch Rexroth workers to strike in dispute over pay and shift changes (4 July) – Unite slams global giant’s plans that leave Scottish workers £7000 a year worse off. Unite has today (Monday 4 July) confirmed that members working at Bosch Rexroth Glenrothes, will walk out over a pay proposal that will leave workers £7000 a year worse off. The German-owned global tech and engineering giant has proposed a six per cent pay deal, which Unite says is a significant pay cut given that real inflation currently stands at 11.7 per cent. The employers are also refusing to back-date the pay award to 1 January or to reverse changes to shift patterns and shift allowances, which means the combined impact of the offer is to leave workers around £7,000 per year worse off. Workers at the site have rejected the company’s proposal by 74 per cent. Unite says that the Bosch Rexroth, a subsidiary of Bosch, is in a strong financial position and has no need to attack the workers’ pay and conditions. In its 2021 annual report, Bosch Rexroth boasted of `reaching a new high on incoming orders’ which have generated sales of £5.4 billion (6.2 billion euros), up by nearly one fifth on the year before. The union’s members, 245 workers, will take continuous strike action from Tuesday 5 July until Tuesday 12 July inclusive. Thereafter they will strike every Monday and Tuesday going forward with an ongoing ban on overtime throughout read more
Basildon CNH tractor factory strikes off after Unite secures pay victory (1 July) – Pay up for lowest paid by £140 per week within two years. Strikes at Basildon’s CNH Industrial tractor factory have been called off after Unite, the UK’s leading union, secured a ‘fantastic’ pay victory for more than 500 workers. Workers at the factory, which is Basildon’s largest employer, have agreed a two-year deal that will mean a weekly pay increase of £40 for year one, with many workers seeing their pay increase by up to £100 a week in year two. Unite says that the deal will benefit the lowest paid workers the most, who are set to see their pay increase by £140 per week by the end of 2023. There has also been an increase in lay-off pay for workers and increase in holiday entitlement read more
Public tells British Airways, give back the 10% you took from staff’s pay (1 July) – POLL: 73% tell BA to do the right thing; 59% say strikes justified; more than one in five say strikes put them off flying with airline. Unite says BA cut has left check-in staff up to £5000 down since pandemic. In the first test of public opinion since British Airways check-in staff announced that they will take strike action to have their pay restored to the pre-pandemic rate, more than seven in ten (73 per cent) of those polled say that the airline should `give it back’. The poll, undertaken for Unite the union by Survation, revealed today (Friday) also confirms public support for the check-in staff’s decision to take industrial action. Nearly six in ten (59 per cent) of those polled say that a strike to restore pay levels is justified. And, in a further rejection of the airline’s refusal to do the right thing by its staff, more than one in five of those polled (22 per cent) say that a strike by BA employees makes them less likely to fly with the airline. Unite says its members – over 500 check-in staff based at Heathrow – are between £3500- £5000 worse off since BA slashed their pay by 10 per cent during the pandemic. The airline has since restored the payment to managers, along with bonuses, but is refusing to do the same for staff. Last week, the union revealed that 94.7 per cent of the check-in staff had voted to take strike action to restore their pay. Strike dates have yet to be announced as the union has offered BA a window of opportunity to resolve Unite’s concerns or trigger strike action read more
Stagecoach Merseyside bus strikes set to go ahead (30 June) – Bus strikes affecting Stagecoach Merseyside’s entire operation are set to go ahead next Monday (July 4) as the workforce takes a stand against low pay. The action will involve 370 members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, employed as bus drivers and engineers based at Stagecoach’s Gilmoss depot. Strike action planned for today (Thursday 30 June) was called off to allow the workforce to be balloted on Stagecoach’s latest offer. However, members overwhelmingly decided that it did not meet their expectations. Unite says its members’ anger over low pay at Stagecoach is deep-seated and that pay rates are below those of competitors in the region read more
Arriva Yorkshire bus strikes suspended as workers consider new offer (30 June) – The long running bus strike affecting Arriva in West Yorkshire has been suspended to allow members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, to be balloted on a new pay offer. The 650 bus workers involved in the dispute will return to work on Saturday 2 July. The strike was nearing the end of its fourth week, when Arriva made an improved offer to Unite. In an act of goodwill Unite has suspended the strike action to allow its members to be balloted on the offer read more
Unite wins Barclays staff cost of living pay increase (30 June) – Unite the union representing staff at Barclays has today (Thursday 30) won a ‘cost of living’ increase for staff from 1 August 2022. Following calls from the union and discussions with management to address the struggles staff have faced because of rising costs, Unite has welcomed the agreement of Barclays to increase annual pensionable salary of employees at grades BA1 to AVP by £1,200 (FTE) read more
Gatwick Taxi drivers facing brutal fire and rehire-style tactics (29 June) – Around 300 taxi drivers working at Gatwick Cars Ltd are being threatened with `fire and rehire’ and forced onto a vastly inferior zero hours contract, which will dramatically cut their pay. Gatwick Cars is demanding its drivers sign a zero hours contract and will grab an eye-watering 40 per cent of the drivers’ fares. The company has informed the workforce that they have to sign the contracts by this Friday (1 July 2022) or not receive any further work. The drivers will be staging a protest against the company’s plans this Friday read more
Bexley bin collections to halt during summer strikes over pay and conditions (29 June) – Countrystyle Recycling trying to ‘punish’ workers for cost of living pay demands. Bin collections in Bexley, in South London, will halt during summer pay strikes, Unite, the UK’s leading union, said today (Wednesday 29 June). More than 100 workers, employed by Bexley council contractor Countrystyle Recycling, will begin a two-week strike on 12 July in a dispute over pay and working conditions. Countrystyle has offered the workers a below-inflation pay deal and also wants to scrap a long-standing ‘job and finish’ clause in their contracts. This will mean workers are forced to stay at the depot when their work is finished. The deal has been rejected by Unite’s membership, who want a pay rise that better reflects the real inflation rate, RPI, which is running at 11.7 per cent read more
Strikes over bullying and pay cuts could hit Coca Cola supplies this summer (29 June) – Strikes over bullying and pay cuts could hit Coca Cola supplies this summer. Workers with the power to grind production to a halt are furious over bosses’ threats. Supplies of Coca Cola are under threat this summer because bosses are attempting to force through a below inflation pay deal. The workers are furious about an abysmal pay deal alongside management threats and bullying. In 2021, Coca Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) made £1.6 billion in profit and had revenues worth £12.7 billion…The clerical workers employed in Wakefield, the largest CCEP plant and the biggest soft drinks plant in Europe, are now preparing to stage an industrial action ballot. The workers have unanimously rejected the company’s latest pay offer and subsequent threats read more
Unite’s Sharon Graham hits back at the latest attack on the right to strike (28 June) – Government changes the law – agency workers can now be used to break strikes. Responding to the government’s latest attack on the right to strike, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Attacking trade unions to prop up the Prime Minister will not tackle soaring inflation. Profits not wages are driving price rises. Trying to sow division won’t solve the cost of living crisis and this political stunt should be treated with the disdain it deserves…” read more
Unite secures ‘game changing’ pay deal for Heathrow cabin crew (28 June) – 18 per cent deal sees wages for some CAE Crewing Services Ltd increase by nearly £5,000. Unite, the UK’s leading union, has secured a ‘game changing’ pay deal for Heathrow-based cabin crew employed by CAE Crewing Services Ltd on its contract for Scandinavian airline SAS Connect. All workers will receive a phased 18 per cent pay rise beginning with an immediate hike of 11 per cent, followed by four per cent increase in November and three per cent in March 2023. The deal also reverses a 10 per cent pay cut accepted by the workforce during the pandemic read more
Darchem Engineering workers in Stockton-on-Tees secure pay victory (28 June) – Sheet metal workers and platers employed by Darchem Engineering on the Hinckley Point contract have secured a major increase in pay rates following strike action. The workers, members of Unite the union, took two periods of 48 hour strike action earlier this month. The strikes were in response to the company’s decision to increase pay rates for welders but not for other trades on the £200 million contract to manufacture industrial pond liners for the nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. Following the second period of strike action last week, the company has agreed to pay the workers a £1.25 per hour increase from this week. This equates to an extra £50 per week for a 40 hour working week, worth 8.5 per cent on the basic rate of pay read more
Caterpillar pays for strike-breakers to stay in five star luxury – Unite blasts firm for ‘burning through’ cash on rooms that cost up to £850 a night rather than pay workers fairly. Manufacturing company Caterpillar has been paying for the strike-breakers it brought to Northern Ireland to stay in five star luxury, Unite the union says today (22 June). The strike breakers have been staying at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast but after their presence attracted protests, they were moved to the five-start Culloden Resort Hotel and Spa. Rooms at the Culloden Resort Hotel – which offers a `luxurious break…..at the most prestigious five-star hotel in Northern Ireland’ – can cost up to £850 a night, while a suite is £2,500 a night. Unite says that, along with the high-cost hotel accommodation costs, Caterpillar is paying the travel costs and hourly premiums to those they have brought in to cross picket lines read more
McLaren, Aston Martin and Bentley supply chain hit by strikes over pay ‘cut’ – Tipton CabAuto workers earn £9.90ph building interiors for £200k + cars. West Midland workers making interiors for elite autos McLaren, Aston Martin and Bentley, are due to start a period of seven one-day strikes in June and July over a real terms pay cut. More than 100 workers at CabAuto in Tipton earn just £9.90 an hour to make seats and interior trims for luxury cars such as the £700,000 McLaren Senna and the £225,000 Aston Martin Superleggera. The workers will strike over a three per cent pay offer on 28 and 30 June and 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 July. Unite says that the three percent offered to its CabAuto members is a pay cut with real inflation running at 11.1 per cent and rising. Some CabAuto workers are so poorly rewarded that they have been forced to use food banks read more
Strike at Moy Park Randalstown mill continues as employers refuse to pay the rate for the job – Randalstown workers paid ‘chicken feed’ wages – some less than £5,000 a year compared to workers at other Moy Park sites. As Moy Park profits touch £90 million Unite exposes how poverty pay at Randalstown leaves workers borrowing to ‘make ends meet’. A Unite survey of striking Moy Park workers has revealed that eight in 10 are suffering a declining standard of living; seven in 10 had trouble making ends meet in the last year; and six in 10 had to borrow money to get by. Drivers at the plant regularly work well in excess of 70 hours a week to make a living as the rates of pay at the site are more than £5,000 a year less than drivers receive at other Moy Park sites for the same work. The latest figures for 2021 show Moy Park has reported profits of £86 million, while its owner Pilgrim’s Pride banked among its highest ever margins at £478 million. So there’s cash a plenty to pay the same rate across the company. Unite reveals the shocking statistics as workers at Randalstown stand on pickets for a second week at the Moy Park owned chicken feed mill read more
Big name brands Diageo, Chivas, Bacardi, Carlsberg among those facing bottle shortages this summer as workers at Owens Illinois (O-I) Glass take strike action in pay dispute – Over 160 workers, members of Unite the union, are set to walk out in rejection of a pay offer of just four per cent, which the union says is a pay cut given the real inflation rate (RPI) currently stands 11.1 per cent. O-I Glass’s quarterly results released in March this year shows significant growth in both revenue and net income. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “O-I Glass is another shameful example of a business that can afford to pay a decent wage but won’t pay. The offer on the table is a pay cut, not a rise, and is entirely unacceptable. O-I Glass needs to return with an acceptable offer or face strike action by our members, who will have the full support of their union in this fight for fair pay.” Strike action will be across three sites: the Devilla Forest Quarry and the Glasshouse Loan which are both in Alloa, Scotland, and the company’s plant in Edinburgh Way, Harlow. Strikes will begin with a 24 hour strike at the Devilla Forest Quarry, on Wednesday 15 June, this will be followed by a 48 hour strike at the Glasshouse in Alloa, beginning on Thursday 16 June. The workers at the Harlow plant will then stage a 48 hour walkout beginning on Sunday 19 June. Further strike action is set to be announced in the near future. Hopes of progress in the dispute collapsed this week when the company simply restated their previous pay offer during negotiations read more
Staff at FCA prepare for second wave of strike action as FoI requests exposes a “deep crisis” – Freedom of Information (FoI) requests lodged by Unite has revealed that 1,000 employees have left the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) since CEO, Nikhil Rathi took office in October 2020, prompting the union to warn of a deep crisis at the regulator. The news comes as Unite members prepare to stage a second wave of strike action in London and Edinburgh for two days beginning on Thursday (9 June).Unite says the FCA is in crisis and is haemorrhaging staff. It can no longer claim to be an effective or reliable regulator read more
Doncaster rail maintenance workers to strike over ‘abhorrent’ fire and rehire by US multi-national – Unions declare ‘shame on you’ to Wabtec’s breaking of proud history. Members of Unite and the RMT unions employed by rail maintenance firm Wabtec in Doncaster will strike over ‘abhorrent’ fire and rehire plans. Over 200 workers will take strike action on 10, 11, 12 and 13 June. A second round of strike action will begin on 27 June and end on 3 July, with more strikes set to be announced. The unions say that the US-owned firm is bringing shame to Doncaster, home of the Flying Scotsman, which was built on the site Wabtec operates from. Wabtec is seeking to fire and rehire the workers onto new contracts that will see breaks cut and staff having to work extra hours, including at the end of their shift, for no extra pay. The company is offering workers that sign the contracts a two-year below inflation pay rise. With inflation (RPI) running at 11.1 percent, this is a real terms pay cut over two years. The unions are advising staff who have been pressurised by management during one-to-one meetings into signing the new contracts that they can still take action to fight the changes read more
Main port on Shetland Isles could be forced to close after negotiations with Port Authority break down – Unite warns strikes could bring Lerwick harbour to a standstill. Unite the union confirmed today (8 June) that its members working at the Lerwick Port Authority are set to start all-out strike action in a dispute over pay, terms and conditions. Around a dozen key workers will begin continuous strike action from 00:01 hours on Monday 20 June at the main port in the Shetland Islands. The all-out strike marks an escalation from the current overtime bans, and will bring operations at the port to a ‘standstill’ impacting cruise liners and oil and gas vessels, as well as the general shipping read more
Pay strikes at UK’s only ink manufacturer to hit Daily Mail, Amcor, Scheizwer and Multi-Colour Corp – Pay strikes at the UK’s only ink manufacturer, Sun Chemical, will impact the printing of the Daily Mail as well as production for Amcor, Scheizwer and Multi-Colour Corp. Nearly 200 Sun Chemical employees, members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, will take strike action at sites across the country over an ‘insulting’ three per cent pay offer. An overtime ban will commence on 6 June followed by a 24-hour strike on 9 June at seven sites, with more strikes set to be announced. The sites are in Bristol, Midsomer Norton in Somerset, Workington in Cumbria, Alfreton in Derbyshire and Heywood, Milnrow and Urmston in Greater Manchester. Sun Chemicals is part of the global DIC corporation. According to the DIC 2021 report, the corporation made £2.5 billion in profits, with its Europe and Africa division, of which Sun Chemicals is the largest company, netting profits of £60 million read more
Carlisle can factory strikes to hit summer supplies of Coca Cola, Heineken, Brewdog and Magners – June pay strikes at Carlisle’s Crown Bevcan factory will hit summer supplies of cans of Coca Cola, Heineken, Brewdog, Magners and Bulmers, Unite, the UK’s leading union, said today (Tuesday 24 May). Around 200 workers, who have already taken two days of strike action over a three per cent pay offer, will strike on 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 June. The tin can production workers are seeking a pay deal that reflects rising living costs read more
Unite says Marine Scotland strikes on after impasse in talks with Scottish Government – Unite the union has confirmed today (Tuesday 24 May) that strike action at Marine Scotland will go ahead following a failure by the Scottish government to make an improved pay offer. The trade union has been engaged in several rounds of discussions with the Scottish government following a two per cent pay imposition for 2021, which Unite contests could constitute an ‘unlawful inducement’. However, with the Scottish Government refusing to re-open pay talks for 2021, strikes are to go ahead. Unite members at Marine Scotland in seafaring roles will now take part in two separate periods of 48-hour strike action involving Marine Protection Vessels (MPV) Hirta on 26 and 27 May, and Jura on 3 and 4 June. The vessels are normally based at Aberdeen harbour read more
Hinkley Point facing delivery delays as engineering workers strike in pay dispute – The flagship Hinkley Point nuclear power plant development could face significant delays due to a pay dispute at Darchem Engineering in Stockton-on-Tees. Strike action will hit Darchem Engineering, which manufactures industrial pond liners for Hinkley Point as part of £200 million contract with the next delivery due in June. The workers are challenging an increasing pay disparity between trades at the company. The welders’ pay has increased by over £2 an hour but the company has refused to give a similar increase to the platers and sheet metal workers. Industrial action by Unite’s members will begin with an overtime ban starting on Monday 6 June. This will then be followed by three 48-hour strikes beginning on Monday 13 June, Monday 20 June and Monday 27 June. Further strikes could be called depending on the response of the employer read more
Langford Lodge strikes to go ahead as Unite pursues pay rise and action on equal pay scandal – Unite has notified management at Crumlin-based Langford Lodge that their workers will commence a first week of strike action in pursuit of a pay increase from 00.01am on Thursday 26 May. The union also wants the scandal of unequal pay addressed at the company. A significant grouping of women machinists for example are being paid £1.93 per hour less than male colleagues while they do work of similar or equal value. The strike is an escalation of an overtime ban previously in force at the RLC Engineering-owned, precision engineering aerospace manufacturer. Last minute talks failed to result in agreement on the pay and equality improvements sought by Unite, leaving the union’s members with no alternative but to follow through on plans for a first week of strike action read more
Hackney council strikes escalate as parking services workers join pay dispute – Strikes at Hackney council will escalate in the coming weeks, Unite, the UK’s leading union, has warned, with 70 parking services workers now joining more than 200 of their colleagues in a dispute over pay. Staff working in refuse, building services and disability transport services took six days of strike action in late April and early May over an ‘insulting’ 1.75 per cent pay offer. With the real rate of inflation (RPI) now running at 11.1 per cent, strike action is set to step up in the coming weeks. In addition, Hackney parking services staff are to be balloted for industrial action over pay and conditions after their department was insourced back to the council on 1 April this year – potentially bringing the total number of striking workers to 270. Parking services staff have been told that negotiations over their pay, terms and conditions will not even be considered until next year. The workers are on inferior wages and contracts compared to other Hackney council workers read more
C2C rail passengers warned of disruption as Alstom workers begin strike over pay attacks – Passengers using the C2C rails line between London and Southend are set for considerable disruption over the coming weeks as maintenance engineers employed by Alstom take strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions. Strikes are due to begin tomorrow (Monday 9 May) with further action scheduled for 13, 16, 20, 23, 27, 30 May and 3 June. Disruption to services is likely on both the strike days and on days following the strike action. An overtime ban is also in force. The workers are taking action following a series of attacks on their pay and condition and concerns about high sickness and low morale at Alstom, the French company that bought Bombardier in 2020. The workers recorded a 95 per cent yes vote in favour of strike action read more
Rugby GE Steam strikes could worsen as company uses outside consultants to ‘undermine’ union – The first strikes in 45 years at Rugby’s 120-year-old GE Steam turbine factory could worsen as the company uses outside consultancy firm Shape Associates to ‘undermine’ union organisation. Unite, the UK’s leading union, is preparing to re-ballot more than 75 of its members at the factory to extend strike action over attacks on pay. The initial round of strike action began on 17 April and is due to end on 2 May, with the next strike on 29 April. The union said GE Steam has given over the responsibility of running the factory to Shape Associates so the consultancy firm can force through cutbacks prior to the site’s sale to EDF read more
Unite urges Woolwich Ferry – seize opportunity to resolve dispute as strike ballot suspended to kick-start talks – Woolwich Ferry’s workers have suspended their industrial action and also plans to hold another strike ballot in a goodwill gesture to resolve the long-running dispute, Unite the union said today (Tuesday 5 April). Unite has put forward proposals, which remain confidential, to Transport for London (TfL) bosses to kick-start meaningful talks over the poor employment relations that have been the hallmark of successive operators of the troubled ferry. Six workers, including two Unite reps, still remain unfairly suspended when the last bout of industrial action ended on 28 March read more
Strike action continues as GE Aviation accused of ‘dirty tricks’ in Gloucester pay dispute – Workers at Gloucester’s Hurricane Road GE Aviation factory will be striking every Friday until their call for a fair wage is honoured, Unite the union has said today (Tuesday 29 March). Multinational GE Aviation has been accused of `dirty tricks’ in an attempt to undermine the workers. The 90-plus workers are employed by GE’s subsidiary Dowty Propellers. The workers have rejected a two year pay offer worth just 4.5 per cent which, with the actual level of inflation (retail price index) standing at 8.2 per cent, amounts to a real terms pay cut read more
Veolia workers across Edinburgh and Lothians set to strike over `insulting’ pay offer – Unite can confirm today (24 March) that more than 50 members working for Veolia Water across Edinburgh and the Lothians are set to take strike action in a dispute over pay. The strike action, involving plant operatives, electrical maintenance, mechanical, and administrative staff, was supported overwhelmingly by 94 per cent of Unite’s members in a ballot turnout of 83 per cent. The Veolia workers are demanding a significantly improved pay offer from the company. With the more realistic cost of living (RPI) currently running at 8.2 per cent per cent, Veolia’s offer of 2.6 per cent for this year is a pay cut. Strike action will take place from 7-13 April, and then continuous strike action from 21 April read more
PCS
Pensions (6 July) – PCS members have been overpaying their pension contributions for three years; every year the losses you have incurred increase. To date losses average over £1,000 per member. It is important to understand that this money does not contribute towards the pension you will get, it is extra money that you pay in for no reason other than the government claims the scheme is unaffordable without it. This has been shown to be untrue: the scheme is running in surplus because of the increase in contributions you were forced to make. There are two solutions to this overpayment: one is that the government reduces the contribution rate by 2% for all employees and the other is that they increase the pension benefits you receive on retirement. At present the government wants to take the unacceptable step of using the overpaid cash to correct the mistake they made in discriminating on the grounds of age against people in retirement schemes. The money you are overpaying should not be used to correct the mistakes of government. So far nearly 22,000 PCS members have worked out how much they have lost by using our PCS pensions loss calculator. The average loss per month is around £53. Simply enter your gross annual salary into the calculator and it will show you how much you have overpaid read more
Pensions legal challenge in November (5 July) – PCS and other trade unions will challenge the government’s reduction in the value of new pension schemes for civil servants and millions of public service workers in the High Court in November. The High Court yesterday gave permission for the challenge to go ahead, following the age discrimination found proven in earlier proceedings at the Court of Appeal read more
PCS restates commitment to fight DWP job cuts (1 July) – It is madness to cut DWP jobs which support the unemployed and economically vulnerable during a cost-of-living crisis, PCS has said in response to confirmation from DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield that he has submitted proposals to axe posts read more
Why vote yes in the industrial action ballot at OCS (28 June) – Dozens of new members have joined PCS so they can vote in the ballot over low pay, terms and conditions. PCS is balloting members employed by OCS on the HMCTS contract over a pay offer of just 27p above the national minimum wage. OCS is accredited by the Real Living Wage Foundation as a Real Living Wage employer yet is refusing to meet our demands on pay for those keeping the courts safe and operational. More than three dozen new members have joined PCS in the first week of the industrial action ballot. All those who join by 5pm on Wednesday 29June 2022 are entitled to vote in the ballot, which opened on 16 June read more
HMCTS forces industrial action ballot by restarting Common Platform rollout (23 June) – In clear breach of the dispute process HMCTS informed PCS at 9.37pm yesterday that they would be announcing to staff at 09.30am today that they will proceed with the Common Platform roll-out. The HMCTS Crime Programme Board and senior judiciary gave their approval for Common Platform to be implemented at more criminal courts across England and Wales. 35 additional court sites across England and Wales will be inflicted with Common Platform over the next two months read more
Strong support for British Council strike (16 June) – British Council workers on UK contracts took their first of three days of strike action yesterday. British Council members are on strike for three days over cuts, redundancies and privatisation. Picket lines took place in London and Manchester, with union members across the globe participating in the strike on social media. Members from London and Manchester travelled to Westminster to lobby members of parliament to build support for the campaign read more
GMB
South London special schools on high alert as bus drivers set to strike (4 July) – GMB, the union for all school support staff, has announced that their members employed by HATS within the London Borough of Southwark are set to take strike action on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 July. The members are employed as bus drivers and attendants and are responsible for getting dozens of pupils with special educational needs to school. HATS have not offered their employees a pay rise in eight years, despite expecting them to continue working throughout the pandemic. The workers are therefore asking for a 20 per cent pay rise, which the union has said would just about cover the decrease in the value of their earnings, when taking into account the period since their last pay uplift and current rates of inflation read more
St George’s Hospital to face further strike action (4 July) – GMB, the union for all NHS workers, have announced that their members employed by Mitie at St George’s Hospital will be extending their strike action for a further five days. The union members are employed as cleaners and hostesses within the Tooting hospital and are in dispute with their employer over withheld pay and contract terms. The workers are calling on the NHS trust to intervene in the discussions between GMB and Mitie in order to bring about a resolution to the action. The further strike dates that have been announced are Sunday 17, Wednesday 20, Thursday 21, Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 July, with an agreement to ‘work to rule’ action short of a strike in between in addition read more
RMT boss Mick Lynch joins striking hospital workers in South London (27 June) – GMB union members at St George’s Hospital were visited on the picket line by Mick Lynch. Striking hospital cleaners and hostesses were joined at a demonstration in South London by RMT union General Secretary Mick Lynch. The workers, who are employed by Mitie at St George’s Hospital, have so far undertaken ten days of strike action in their dispute over pay and conditions. Mr Lynch pledged the full support of the RMT union to the striking workers and spoke to address them outside the hospital gates. During his visit on Sunday [26 June], he spoke of the importance of unions working together to organise precarious workers. He added that Mitie ‘are like bandits’ whose focus is ‘not just about the money but driving down services and driving profits up’ read more
Sign petition – To St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Mitie out: Demand fair pay and conditions for staff at St George’s Hospital
Budweiser strikes to continue into July after talks collapse (1 July) – Budweiser strike action scheduled for July will go ahead after crisis talks collapsed. Management called GMB officials to meet to discuss next steps in the wage negotiation – but instead of meaningful engagement to resolve the dispute, they proposed GMB should recommend the derisory offer of 3 per cent, which amounts to a real terms pay cut. Bosses also threatened workers that they wouldn’t be able to claim back pay if the deal was not agreed by 21 July. Workers at the Salmesbury site have already walked out several times in June over the pay dispute read more
Tory government should ‘butt out’ of devolved Welsh affairs (27 June) – Commenting on tonight’s announcement, Tom Hoyles GMB political officer for Wales said: “GMB will fight this at every step. Let’s be clear on this, the UK government has no right to get involved here – they are overstepping the mark read more
Wiltshire to shell out extra £1.5 million a year on agency staff since aiming to slash social worker pay (4 July) – Wiltshire Council is set to fork out an extra £1.5 million a year on agency social workers since announcing plans to slash in house social workers wages, a GMB investigation shows.
Analysis of council spending reveals that during June 2022 Wiltshire Council paid £248,367 for 5,709 hours of agency social work, and in May 2022, they paid £201,950 for 4,688 hours, making a total £450,317 during just two months. This compares with just £280,974 for the two month period of December 2021 to January 2022, the last two months before they announced their intention to cut social worker pay by 20%. This is an increase of 60% read more
Wiltshire traffic warden strike suspended as council shelve fire and rehire plans (29 June) – GMB members who work as traffic wardens in Wiltshire will no longer be going on strike from tomorrow as planned. Following talks between the union and the council, the strike action has been suspended as the council has moved their position on using the controversial practice of ‘Fire and Rehire.’ The dispute centred around a change to contractual unsocial hours payments which would have seen some workers losing up to 20 per cent of their wages read more
Other council workers invited to join Wiltshire traffic warden industrial action (24 June) – Social workers and care workers will be balloted for industrial action unless Wiltshire Council repudiates plans for ‘fire and rehire’ pay cuts, says GMB. GMB can confirm that social workers and reablement workers will be balloted to join the ongoing industrial action being undertaken by traffic wardens across Wiltshire. The existing action has taken in two days of strike action so far, and a seven day strike is planned to commence on 30 June 2022. The dispute centres around council plans to remove a contractual unsocial hours payment that will cost council employees up to 20% of their wages. The refusal of council bosses to rule out the controversial practice of “Fire and Rehire” is the final straw, and is why other GMB members are asking to be balloted to join the industrial action being taken by traffic wardens read more
Parking mayhem expected at Wimbledon tennis championships (23 June) – Traffic Wardens operating within the London Borough of Wandsworth have announced new strike dates which will coincide with the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon. Despite the tournament taking place within the London Borough of Merton, many adjoining roads come under the control of Wandsworth, and these roads are expected to become a parking free-for-all, with the traffic wardens not at work. The wardens will be taking action with the support of their union, GMB, as their outsourced employer NSL have made a pay offer that sits well below inflation. The strike will be taking place from Monday 4 July to Friday 8 July, and is their third week of action read more
Hinkley Point supply engineers strike (14 June) – Plating engineers creating products to supply to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station go on strike today [13 June] in a pay dispute. Dozens of workers at Darchem Engineering, in Stockton-Upon-Tees, will walk out today after welders working for same firm were given an additional pay supplement , while the engineers weren’t. Further strikes are planned for 20,21,28 and 29 June. Industrial action could lead to big delays at Hinkley Point C – the £25 billion nuclear reactor in Somerset read more
Rhondda faces bin strike after workers vote for industrial action – Rhondda residents look set to face a bin strike after GMB members in the waste and recycling department voted for industrial action. GMB members at Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council refuse and recycling dept have voted overwhelmingly to support industrial action with a majority of 95 percent. The move could see 130 people strike in May, leaving around 108,000 homes without refuse collections. The union is calling for amendments to the job evaluation scheme after the current system leaves essential workers short-changed for their work. During the pandemic, refuse workers alongside other essential service workers were put at risk, whilst council big wigs worked from home. Over the last decade local government staff have seen their wages cut by around 25 percent read more
Fox’s Glacier Mint workers strike over fire and rehire threat – Fox’s Glacier Mint workers will take a full day of strike action tomorrow [April 14] in anger at the company’s fire and rehire threat. Staff at Valeo York, who also make Poppets and humbugs, mint assortments butter mints, rhubarb and custards and lemon sherberts for well-known supermarkets including M&S, will be joined by the Yorkshire Polar Bear and local councillors read more
Barrow bin strike: Six more days of industrial action – Refuse collectors in Barrow have announced six more days of industrial action in their fight for a living wage. GMB members working FCC Environment will walk out on from 30 March to 1 April and then 6 to 8 April read more
Unison
Harlow refuse workers call off strikes after improved pay offer (5 July) – The offer, worth around 9%, comes alongside a commitment to a new collective agreement. Last month, an overwhelming 97% of refuse workers backed walkouts in Harlow after enduring years of below-inflation deals, including 0% in 2021 and 0.4% in 2020, leaving loaders barely above the legal minimum wage. Workers rejected Veolia’s attempt to impose a 7% rise, saying it failed to keep up with the cost of living. The firm initially refused to talk to UNISON about pay but agreed to negotiate last week, tabling an improved offer of 2.5% backdated to January 2021 and 5.5% from January 2022. Along with additional leave and new holiday enhancement rates, the overall package is worth over 9% and Veolia also agreed to a new collective agreement that includes commitments to negotiate on pay in the future. Members accepted the agreement at meeting on Monday night read more
Care staff in South West begin strike over fire and rehire plans (29 June) – Workers have been left with no choice but to take action. Staff employed by Bristol-based care company St Monica Trust are to begin a series of strikes today (Wednesday) over threats to sack them if they don’t accept a pay cut, says UNISON. As many as 100 care workers, registered nurses and residential home staff are expected to take to the streets outside the trust’s four care homes across South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset, UNISON says. Further action is planned for 2, 5, 10 and 11 July read more
Details of the pickets can be found at this link and you can pledge your support by adding your name here
There is a strike fund which is being collected for. Many of these workers are low paid and part time. With cost of living ever rising it’s essential that we can ensure no one feels like they can’t stand up with their colleagues and strike for fear of lost pay. The union will be paying strike pay and members can request hardship payments up to their full wages so no one gets left behind.
For donations please send to the following details with the reference “SMT”
Account name: UNISON South West
Account number: 49021079
Sort Code: 60-83-01
Health workers in Lancashire strike in dispute over lack of sick pay and unsocial hours payments (29 June) – OCS workers do the same jobs as many NHS colleagues but they miss out on sick pay when they’re ill, are paid less when they work unsocial hours. Health staff employed by private contractor OCS today (Wednesday) begin a 72-hour strike at a number of locations operated by Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Trust, says UNISON read more
Harlow refuse workers vote for strike action (28 June) – Outsourced workers delivered a resounding ‘yes’ to strike action against a pay offer that fails to keep track with the cost of living. Refuse workers from UNISON’s Eastern region have voted 97% in favour of strikes in the hope of securing a better pay offer. They received nothing last year, with employer Veolia offering 7% for 2021 and 2022. Inflation currently stands at 9.1%, wiping out the value of that rise. The company had been refusing to even talk about pay at the Mead Park depot, but has now agreed to meet. UNISON is urging Veolia to come to the negotiating table with a new offer and avoid disruption to the public, before it announces strike dates read more
Latest pay offer for college staff is ‘simply not enough’ (28 June) – UNISON’s FE committee will recommend that members reject the offer, when colleges reopen in September. UNISON’s national further education committee is to recommend that members reject the latest pay offer from the employers’ organisation, which they feel is “simply not enough” to address the cost of living crisis and the problems caused by over a decade of stagnant pay growth. Members will be consulted in September, when colleges reopen. The pay negotiations for 2022/23 with the Association of Colleges (AoC) concluded last week. There had been some movement from the offer made in May, with employers now recommending 2.5% across the board, a further £500 unconsolidated in line with local affordability and £750 unconsolidated for those earning under £25,000. There were also improvements to the claim for all colleges to become Living Wage Foundation accredited employers, with the AoC recommending that all colleges pay the real living wage as a minimum or publish their plans to do so. However, the offer continues to fall far short of the claim the FE unions jointly submitted in March, for a pay rise of 10% on all points, with a minimum uplift of £2,000. The FE committee is also concerned that the offer is unconsolidated, and that many low-paid workers will be no better off since the ‘bonus’ will be clawed back through the Universal Credit taper read more
University of Leeds members prepare to strike again – Action is over the 2021-22 pay round with member resoundingly rejecting the latest offer. The University of Leeds branch is taking further strike action over the 2021-22 pay round, next week, on 20-24 June. Members have lost 20% of their pay against inflation over 12 years. They have used the pay calculator to show just how many thousands of pounds staff are being cheated in their pay read more
NIPSA
Update on Temporary Mileage Changes (4 July) – NIPSA has given a cautious welcome to the Health Ministers announcement of a temporary increase from 20p to 30p to the AFC Mileage over 3,500 miles together with further measures to be explored such as the Trust’s to consider utilising fuel cards. This is reported as a temporary measure for 6 months while we await the longer term Report of the NHS Staff Council Review of AFC Travel Terms and Conditions. NIPSA believes this position on mileage does not resolve the continued onslaught of rising prices and high Inflation, nor will these promises reduce the immediate shortfall of cash in your pocket that you have suffered to date. The bureaucratic process of turning promises into cash, as we are all too well aware, is often subject to delay due in part to the complicated protocols involved but also the ongoing under investment in staff and resources required to deal with multiple priorities. NIPSA will continue to campaign for early implementation along with more permanent solutions to ensure inflationary rises apply to all elements of the mileage affected above and below the 3,500 mile cut off read more
CWU
Royal Mail’s property and facilities workers get set for strike ballot (July 4) – ‘They’re paying us last year’s pay rates, but we’re paying out this year’s prices!’ says workplace rep at national briefing on the RMP&FS pay dispute. With this short sentence, Chris English CWU Central Area rep for P&FS engineers, explained perfectly the sheer unfairness of the current situation facing not only his members, but also the vast majority of our union’s membership and workers across the UK at this time. Latest figures show inflation running at 11.7 per cent (RPI), driven by sharp hikes in fuel and food prices. Although there are no restrictions on companies raising their customer prices, workers’ claims for pay rises in line with inflation are being refused, sparking a wave of disputes, ballots and strikes involving CWU members as well as RMT rail workers, British Airways airport staff and various other key sectors of the economy. Our own members working for the Post Office have already been on strike over pay, with further walkouts planned for next week while BT and Openreach members voted last week for action and ballots are in progress in Royal Mail and Parcelforce read more
Ball firmly in BT’s court as CWU smashes ballot thresholds and demands new talks (July 1) – CWU members across BT Group have delivered an overwhelming message of disgust and defiance to their bosses, voting by well over nine-to-one to reject real-term pay cuts in every part of the business. Onerous legal thresholds, designed to make it as hard as possible for workers to withdraw their labour under the UK’s notoriously anti-union employment law, weren’t just exceeded but positively smashed in Openreach and BT. In Openreach, where 28,425 CWU members were entitled to vote, participants recorded an eye-watering 95.8% ‘yes’ vote for industrial action on a 74.8% turnout. In BT, where 10,353 were issued with ballot papers, another remarkable ‘yes’ vote of 91.5% was recorded on a 58.2% turnout. That turnout, by comparison knocked the socks off the 39.5% participation rate in the recent Wakefield parliamentary by-election and comfortably beat the 52.3% turnout in Tiverton & Honiton which just last week was heralded by the media as “unusually high”. The majorities in favour of strike action in Openreach and BT dispel once and for all the myth consistently perpetuated by management that dissatisfaction with their imposed below-inflation pay settlement was restricted to “around 30 disgruntled employees”! Even in EE – where the ballot turnout fell just eight votes short of the 50% threshold required to mandate legally constituted industrial action (a turnout level that, pointedly, is seldom, if ever, met in any local or Mayoral elections) – an extraordinary 95.5% of those who participated indicated their willingness to strike on a 49.7% turnout. Conceding that the result in EE means that it will be the only part of BT Group that won’t be subject to strike action if management doesn’t take up the union’s offer of new pay talks, deputy general secretary Andy Kerr said: “If there’s any EE manager stupid enough to think that they’ve somehow ‘won’, they should think again…” read more
New CWU strike to halt cash deliveries & collections at all 11,500 UK post offices (July 1) – Union calls out Supply Chain and Admin members and warns Post Office bosses to ‘stop the spin and get serious on pay’. Andy Furey, national officer for the CWU’s Post Office members, announced yesterday that hundreds of cash and valuables in transit (CViT) workers and their cash processing and administrative colleagues will resume strike action on Thursday the 14th July read more
Post Office pay dispute – strike action to resume on 11th July (June 27) – Crown Office members will walk out a week on Monday, Supply Chain and Admin members ‘standing by’, after management snub union’s peace pause. Further industrial action affecting the UK’s 114 Crown Post Offices was confirmed earlier today, with a third bout of nationwide strikes called for early next month, following a failure by bosses to make a substantial improvement in their pay offer to hard-working staff read more
CWU launch national strike ballot in Royal Mail Group and call National Gate Meeting on 28th June read more
Royal Mail tells cleaners: ‘No pay rise for you!’ (June 24) – Angry CWU negotiators slam pay betrayal of company’s lowest-paid workers and accuse bosses of ‘broken promises’. Hundreds of workers who clean Royal Mail premises around the UK have been told they will receive no cost-of-living pay rise in this financial year if they were awarded a Real Living Wage (RLW) adjustment in April, directly contradicting a promise by the business not to link the two read more
NEU
EPI on Teacher Pay (4 July) – An inflation-plus pay rise for all teachers is essential, especially now we are in a cost-of-living crisis with RPI inflation standing at 11.7%. Commenting on Teachers’ Pay in Context, an analysis published today by the Education Policy Institute, Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “There is every argument for a better deal for teachers than the one currently on offer. England’s parlous position in the OECD table for pay growth in the 2010s, as demonstrated in this EPI analysis, shows how badly the situation has stagnated…” read more
Support this strike:-
Drapers’ Pyrgo Priory School / Havering (Restructure) 5-7 July contact: [email protected]
NASUWT
Teachers in Wales to be balloted on action if no substantial pay award (2 July) – Members of NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union across Wales will be balloted for industrial action if they do not receive a substantial pay award, the Union will announce this weekend. At the NASUWT Cymru Conference in Llandudno an emergency motion calls for a September ballot “if the Welsh Government falls far short of a 12% pay uplift.” After 12 years of erosion to their pay, teachers are facing the biggest squeeze on their living standards in half a century and the NASUWT is calling for a 12% pay award this year to prevent an unprecedented retention crisis read more
Talk of 5% pay rise ‘doesn’t come close’ (1 July) – Speaking to media reports that teachers in England are set to be recommended a 5% pay rise, Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, said: “We have repeatedly asked Ministers to enter into talks to address the serious and damaging impact of real terms pay cuts on recruitment and retention in the teaching profession…” read more
Teachers prepare for national industrial action ahead of pay award uncertainty (19 June) – The NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union will ballot members for national industrial action if the Government does not deliver pay restoration for teachers. The Union will ballot members in England, Wales and Scotland for industrial action in November should the teachers’ pay award for 2022/23 fall short of demands. After 12 years of pay erosion, teachers are now facing the biggest squeeze on their living standards for half a century. Energy bills alone have shot up by 54%, but the value of teachers’ pay has slumped by 20%. Now two in three teachers are being forced consider how much longer they can afford to remain in the profession. To prevent an unprecedented retention crisis and protect the future of education, the NASUWT believes teachers must receive a 12% pay award this year. NASUWT members from across the UK took part in the largest demonstration of working people in a decade yesterday, marching for a better deal for teachers as part of a national cost of living rally in Central London read more
EIS
EIS wins court victory to stop Faculties in Dundee (21 June) – Late this afternoon, the EIS has been successful in obtaining an interim interdict against Dundee City Council at the Court of Session in Edinburgh regarding its implementation of introducing faculties read more
UCU
UCU responds to USS governance review (6 July) – The University and College Union has responded to the announcement by Universities UK of a review into USS governance read more
Unprecedented strike action facing universities as UCU confirms strike ballot (1 July) – University staff could join the wave of industrial action sweeping the UK as the University and College Union today confirmed it will move ahead with plans to ballot staff in disputes over pensions and pay & conditions. The union’s higher education committee (HEC) met today and authorised a ballot of all higher education members in late summer with strikes to follow in the November, along with further ballots for industrial action in spring 2023. For the first time in these disputes, the ballot will be aggregated meaning that if UCU achieves an overall turnout of 50% or above and a majority YES vote, all universities across the UK will be hit by strike action. Universities across the UK have already seen 15 days of strike action this year and around 40 branches are currently taking part in a marking boycott, with staff refusing to undertake marking and assessment duties read more
Barnet & Southgate College staff told to vote to strike by UCU president & general secretary (29 June) – UCU general secretary Jo Grady and president Janet Farrar will meet with staff at Barnet & Southgate College today to urge them to vote yes in a strike ballot over low pay. The ballot opened on Tuesday 14 June and will close on Friday 15 July. Staff are being balloted after college management refused to offer any more than 2% for the previous two financial years (1% 2020/21 and 1% 2021/22). UCU is demanding a significant uplift to help meet the cost of living crisis. Inflation is currently 11.7% and staff at English colleges have seen pay fall behind inflation by 35% since 2009. In 2021 the Westminster government announced an 8.4% increase in funding targeted at those in England aged 16-17 years old, the biggest rise in funding for further education in more than decade and coming after £240m in additional funding came into effect in 2020-21. Jo and Janet are meeting with staff at Barnet campus today from 12.30pm before heading to Southgate campus for 2pm. Staff at over 30 other colleges across England are also currently being balloted over low pay read more
Richmond upon Thames College to face 14 days more strike action over fire & rehire plans (28 June) – Staff at Richmond upon Thames College are set to down tools for 14 consecutive days over a three-week period in August and September over plans by management to sack every teacher at the college and force them to reapply for their jobs on worse terms and conditions if they want to stay. The announcement comes as staff take a further day of strike action today (Tuesday) aimed at disrupting an open day taking place at the college. Striking staff will be picketing and holding a rally at the Marsh Farm Lane entrance to the college at 4pm today as prospective students and their parents visit the college. The protests will include a mobile billboard outlining the college’s plans to sack over 100 members of teaching staff. Strike action in the summer will hit enrolment, induction and first week of teaching and take place on the following days: Monday 22 August, Tuesday 23 August, Wednesday 24 August, Thursday 25 August, Friday 26 August, Tuesday 30 August, Wednesday 31 August, Thursday 1 September, Friday 2 September, Monday 5 September, Tuesday 6 September, Wednesday 7 September, Thursday 8 September, Friday 9 September. Staff will be picketing the college on every morning of the strike action. The college wants to sack all 127 members of its teaching staff and make them reapply for their jobs on new contracts that would see them lose 10 days’ holiday. Management began the deeply controversial process, widely known as ‘fire and rehire’, without any prior engagement or consultation with staff. The college claims that ‘trust’, ‘integrity’ and ‘excellence’ are the values that ‘underpin everything’ it does read more
Strike ballot opens today at colleges across England over low pay (14 June) – Strikes at 33 colleges in England could be on the cards as industrial ballots opened today in a dispute over low pay, unmanageable workloads and professional respect. The ballot closes on Friday 15 July read more
UCU fighting fund: the link is here and donations to the fund are spent on supporting members involved in important disputes.
FBU
FBU gets pensions Judicial Review go ahead (July 4) – The FBU has won permission for a major Judicial Review case to be heard by the High Court. The case relates to who pays for costs arising from the 2015 pensions scheme debacle, with the government trying to force firefighters to pay. Several other trade unions with public sector memberships are named as “interested parties” to it, due to the implications for the wider public sector. Additionally a claim by the BMA has been held to overlap with this case and so will be heard together with it. New public sector pension schemes were introduced by the coalition government in 2015, which in most cases were substantially worse than the pension schemes that preceded them. The way the new schemes were introduced was found to be discriminatory on age grounds in proceedings brought by firefighters and judges which concluded in 2019, and the changes have been instructed to be reversed between 2015 and 2022. The government estimates the cost of this to be £17bn in total. The government’s reaction has been to try and shift this cost to the members of the new, post-2015 public sector pension schemes, resulting in the cost of remedying the government’s discrimination against members of the pre-2015 schemes, being met by younger scheme members. The government’s remedy is being challenged on the grounds that it breaches commitments made in legislation and to unions in 2015, that it contravenes the purpose of the cost control mechanism, and that it discriminates against younger scheme members read more
World Health Organisation agency declares firefighting to be carcinogenic (July 1) – The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a World Health Organisation body, has today declared that occupational exposure as a firefighter has been classified as carcinogenic. The decision comes against a background of research around the world proving that there are links between firefighting and cancer, including in the UK where initial University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) research has found that surveyed firefighters were four times more likely to have been diagnosed with cancer than the general population. We now know these links arise from issues including toxic fire contaminants. The decision followed a week-long discussion by 25 leading scientists from eight countries in Lyon, France. In the UK the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has led on research into the links between cancer and firefighting, and best practice that can help mitigate the potential risks from fire contaminants read more
Suffolk fire service salary systems issue causing firefighters misery (June 30) – Many Suffolk firefighters are receiving less money than they should in their pay packets due to a faulty computer system. The fire and rescue service has had the issue brought to their attention by the Fire Brigades Union but has not resolved it. In April 2021 the fire and rescue service moved from the iTrent payment system to Oracle Fusion. Issues began arising with firefighters’ payslips including multiple deductions being made for pension payments, payments and deductions for the same figure, deductions taken for the wrong pension scheme, incomprehensible payslips stretching over 3 pages in some cases, and incorrect holiday pay calculations. The issue is widespread throughout the service, with at one point 1,400 unpaid claims issues having been reported by on-call firefighters – of whom there are only around 400 read more
Firefighters’ 2% pay offer “utterly inadequate” (June 27) – Firefighters and firefighter control staff have responded angrily to a 2% pay offer from fire and rescue employers. The union’s executive council is recommending rejection of the pay offer to members. The 2% pay offer is against a current rate of inflation of 9.1% (CPI, year on year to May 2022). The fire service annual pay award is due on 1 July. The pay offer comes against a background of huge long-term pay cuts to firefighters’ pay. Between 2009 and 2021, firefighters’ real pay has been cut by 12%, or nearly £4,000. The pay offer will now go for consideration by members, with the union’s executive council recommending rejection read more
POA
National Chair update June 2022 – Please bring the contents of this circular to the attention of all POA members. The Prison Service Pay Review Body have confirmed they have submitted their recommendations for the 2022/23 pay award for Prison Officers and related grades to HM Government. We must now wait for the Government to publish these recommendations and inform us which recommendations they wish to adopt read more
BFAWU
Parliamentary Group Chair writes to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (28 June) – Sarah Woolley: Yesterday on behalf of the BFAWU’s Parliamentary Group, Ian Mearns Mp wrote the following letter to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri:
Dear Mr Fakhri,
I am writing to you on behalf of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union Parliamentary Group, which brings together Members of the British Parliament who campaign on issues of interest to workers in the food sector. The Group is currently campaigning for the Right to Food to be incorporated into UK legislation, since sadly there is mounting evidence of widespread food insecurity in the UK. Professor Philip Alston, the then UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, published a damning report to the UN Human Rights Council on the basis of his visit to the UK (23 April 2019), which found that:
People said they had to choose either to eat or heat their homes. Children are showing up at school with empty stomachs, and schools are collecting food and sending it home because teachers know their students will otherwise go hungry. And 2.5 million people in the United Kingdom survive with incomes no more than 10 per cent above the poverty line – just one crisis away from falling into poverty.
Since this report was compiled, the situation has only got worse – given the impact of falling incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently the emergence of a widespread and serious cost-of-living crisis – with pay lagging well behind inflation, and energy and food prices both soaring read more
NUJ
Staff at Reach to ballot for industrial action over pay (28 June) – NUJ members at Reach titles will be balloted in coming weeks, following rejection of a 3% pay offer. The dispute over pay follows months of talks with Reach plc, to agree a fair and decent pay award for staff within the company. Despite the union’s extensive negotiation efforts including senior talks with Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, the company has failed to recognise the significant contribution of journalists and increase their final offer of 3 per cent or £750 for employees. The Reach NUJ Group chapel has overwhelmingly rejected the pay offer and has voted to ballot for strike action and/or action short of a strike. The union will now prepare to ballot members and on 24 June, informed Reach of its intention read more
BBC North West journalists vote for work to rule – NUJ members are making a stand about the damaging impact of job cuts on news outpt in the region. As well as working with a significantly reduced workforce, staff at BBC North West are now expected to take on more and more technical duties previously carried out by skilled technical staff. If allowed to continue, the quality of the regional news programmes will suffer and deteriorate, they say. More than 97 per cent of NUJ members in the chapel voted in favour of industrial action. It follows the BBC’s decision to cut £25m from BBC England’s budget, leading to 450 job cuts cross England. The vast majority of journalists who work for BBC North West are NUJ members read more
Prospect
Prospect negotiates substantial pay offer with BAE (1 July) – Prospect members working at BAE Systems are set to receive a substantial pay rise after successful talks between the company and unions. The talks were led by the CSEU with Prospect officials taking part alongside those from Unite and GMB. The offer covers 28,000 UK BAE Systems employees across 21 different bargaining units. The offer is for a pay rise of 6.75% and £1000 for 2022, with a further 6% and £1000 for 2023 – union members are being balloted on whether to accept it read more
Prospect highlights pay crisis in heritage sector (1 July) – Prospect union, which represents members in heritage, has published a report demonstrating the disproportionate impact the cost-of-living crisis is having on workers in the sector read more
Concessions from Natural England mean end to Prospect industrial action for now (24 June) – Prospect members at Natural England who have been taking part in industrial action for most 2022 have won concessions from the employer. In particular Natural England has agreed to work much more closely with Prospect and PCS with unions forming part of the teams on the Staff Framework Review and Pay Reform projects read more
Equity
Commercial Theatre Variation Agreement Ballot Result (30 June) –
Results of the Ballot: Votes to accept: 98.5%; Votes to reject: 1.5%; Turnout: 30%
Equity General Secretary, Paul Fleming: “It is testament to the importance of this win for Equity members that it has been backed by over 98% of those voting on a record turnout for ballots on this agreement. The solid result represents not only a rise of over 4% for Equity members, and the substantial rise of touring allowance to £300 – both backdated to April – but a normalisation of the industrial relations process after COVID. Many were anxious that terms would return to pre-COVID norms, and our deputies and staff have delivered that even in this uncertain economic climate. But those pre-COVID terms are clearly not what our members need in the face of the cost of living crisis or what our deputies, activists & staff aspire to for the sector…” read more
USDAW
Institute of Customer Service survey confirms Usdaw findings on the scale of abuse of shopworkers (28 June) – Retail trade union Usdaw is calling for more action to ensure that abuse, threats and violence against shopworkers are taken seriously after another survey shows that incidents are on the increase. New figures from The Institute of Customer Service revealed that 44% of frontline service staff have experienced hostility from customers in the past six months, a rise from 35% in February. It comes as new powers come into force today, which will allow for stiffer penalties for those who attack and abuse shopworkers. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 was given royal assent in April read more
#ReinstateMax: defend sacked Tesco USDAW rep Max McGee – months on from exhausting all appeals, Max McGee is preparing to take Tesco to an Employment Tribunal over his trade union victimisation and sacking. A GoFundMe page has been set up to donate to Max’s reinstatement campaign and trade union comrades are encouraged to raise the campaign at their Trade Union branches and Trades Councils over the coming weeks. Link to the page below:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/reinstate-max-usdaw-rep-socialist
Messages of solidarity and photos can be sent to [email protected]
UVW
Shocking union-busting by “out of control” bosses in Brighton pub dispute (4 June) – The conduct of the landlords in the dispute at the Saint James Tavern (SJT) in Brighton has shown exactly why the workers’ needed to organise and fight back. The workers have been subjected to vicious union-busting, physical assaults, and illegal sackings. The emphatic support for the workers from former SJT employees, many of whom have left because they no longer feel comfortable working at the pub in the centre of Brighton, speaks volumes. One former SJT worker has described the pub as a “living hell for the patrons and staff”. This was a community pub, part of the fabric of the community, which bar staff enjoyed working in until Zakaria Abedi and Victoria Bennett became landlords and began what some of the workers have called a ‘reign of terror.’ UVW is continuing to urge Stonegate Group, the UK’s largest pub company that leases the SJT, to intervene in the dispute. The landlords have been reported to local licensing authorities read more
Pub staff in Brighton fight back against union busting (17 June) – “We feel this is an attack on ourselves, workers that dared to organise, join a union and demand decent working conditions” – Saint James Tavern bar staff and UVW members. The brave Saint James Tavern pub workers in Brighton were called in for disciplinary proceedings by their bosses in mid June after they announced their lawful strike action. The workers and their union, United Voices of the World (UVW), believe this amounts to union victimisation. They are bringing legal action against the pub landlords. The UVW members have been accused of having defamed and brought the business into disrepute in the media and social media but have not been provided with any evidence to back this up. The workers said in a statement that they felt this was “an attack on us, workers that dared to organise, join a union and demand decent working conditions: full sick pay scheme, £11.50 an hour, 24-hour response security team, an end to zero-hour contracts and no cuts to staff hours.” Read more
Strike averted as cleaners win inflation-busting pay rise (1 July) – Latin American cleaners from Ecuador and Bolivia who work at Riverside Quarter, a large luxury residence in Wandsworth, London, have won a 16% pay rise bringing them up to £11.05 an hour from their previous rate of £9.50, the national minimum wage. This pay rise comes after the cleaners, who are United Voices of the World (UVW) members, voted to take strike action, with 100% of the UVW cleaners balloted voting to strike. The cleaners have also won 6 weeks half pay sick pay, a significant improvement on the statutory sick pay they were getting, which stands at £99.35 per week. These wins come after the cleaners won statutory union recognition through the Central Arbitration Committee earlier in June. In the midst of a cost of living crisis in one of the most expensive cities in the world, the timing of this win could not be better read more
LSWU statement on CBA action and the response of the BSB and Lord Chief Justice (27 June) – We are disappointed by the indications by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Lord Chief Justice (LCJ) that those participating in the ‘days of action’ this week will or may be subjected to disciplinary sanctions. While every case will turn on its own facts, we renew our commitment to support the profession as a whole, the collective will of our members and every individual member who plans to engage in such action
IWGB
Outsourced Workers at LSHTM Set to Strike over Pay Following Escalating Union Victimisation – Outsourced cleaners, porters, post room, and security staff working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have voted unanimously in favour of strike action over poverty pay amidst the cost of living crisis. In April, workers from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) launched a campaign to bring an end to a discriminatory pay gap that would pay the majority-migrant and BAME workers below the lowest grade of the university-wide pay scale. This follows only months after a damning report revealing ingrained structural racism across the prestigious university, at academic staff and student level read more
The outsourced workers will strike 18 to 20 July during LSHTM graduation celebrations over poverty pay! Support striking workers and their fight back against the #CostOfLivingCrisis by donating to the strike fund
Barristers take action over pay and conditions
South Eastern Circuit – Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey)
Midland Circuit – Birmingham Crown Court
Northern Circuit – Manchester Crown Court
North Eastern Circuit – Leeds Crown Court
Western Circuit – Bristol Crown Court
Wales & Chester Circuit – Cardiff Crown Court
Week 1: Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th June 2022
Week 2: Monday 4th, Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th July 2022
Week 3: Monday 11th, Tuesday 12th, Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th July 2022
Week 4: Monday 18th, Tuesday 19th, Wednesday 20th, Thursday 21st and Friday July 22nd 2022.
In w/c 25th July: the days of action are suspended for 1 week.
In w/c 1st August: the days of action recommence for a further full week.
SIPTU (Ireland)
Protests in Dublin, Galway and Waterford on day-two of community sector strike tomorrow (5 July) – SIPTU members will hold protests in Dublin, Galway and Waterford tomorrow (Wednesday, 6th July) to mark the second day of strike action by care and community sector workers in a long running dispute in which they are seeking their first pay rise in 14 years read more
IWA strike to go ahead tomorrow following Government failure to engage with unions (4 July) – SIPTU members in the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) will conduct a 24-hour work stoppage tomorrow (Tuesday, 5th July) following the refusal of the Government to discuss with their union their need for a pay rise for the first time in 14 years read more
SIPTU members in Kostal vote for industrial action to protect terms of employment (4 July) – SIPTU members in Kostal Ireland GmbH have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action, up to and including strike action, at the company’s plants in Abbeyfeale, county Limerick and Mallow, county Cork, as part of a dispute to protect their agreed terms and conditions of employment read more
Community Sector workers in seven more counties vote to join pay dispute strike action (1 July) – SIPTU members employed in selected community schemes in seven additional counties have voted to join their colleagues in the Irish Wheelchair Association and numerous organisations in county Galway and county Waterford in a one-day work stoppage next week as part of a long running pay dispute read more
Galway Rape Crisis Centre workers to strike on Wednesday to highlight failure on pay (30 June) – SIPTU members in the Galway Rape Crisis Centre (GRCC) are conducting a 24-hour work stoppage on Wednesday, 6th July, to demand a first pay rise in 14 years and the restoration of pay which was removed from them during the economic crisis read more
International news
(From NUJ website) Philippines: access to media sites blocked (28 June) – Authorities have restricted access to independent news sites citing links to communist and terrorist groups. The National Union of Journalists has joined the International Federation of Journalists in calling for authorities to restore access to independent media restricted in the Philippines read more on NUJ website
Fight blacklisting and victimisation of union reps
Support GARY CARNEY, TRAIN OPERATOR – LONDON UNDERGROUND
Defend Adrian Mitchell RMT driver on London Underground
Donate to solidarity campaign of Moe Muhsin Manir Unite bus rep Email messages of support to Moe: [email protected]
Trade union rep victimisation at Woolwich Ferry reaches ‘obscene levels’, says Unite
Unite: Ealing’s Labour council ‘actively helping’ Serco ‘hound’ union rep from civil enforcement job
St Mungos management escalate dispute by suspending Unite rep – sign petition: End the culture of fear at St Mungo’s – model motion
St Mungo’s: Unite will not tolerate victimisation and bullying
Sign petition: Reinstate Gary Bolister sacked GMB rep at Islington Council
Watch Reel News video: Victimised union reps: Act like it’s you and fight back
Reinstate John Boken Shropshire NEU rep – For more details and send solidarity messages, email [email protected]
Sign petition to support Redbridge NEU Rep Keiran Mahon
Watch Reel News video: Huddersfield teachers strike to defend Louise Lewis
Victimised Tesco warehouse rep Max McGee fighting for reinstatement read more. There is now a GoFundMe to support the campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/f/reinstate-max-usdaw-rep-socialist) and Max can be invited to speak at Usdaw and other union branches plus trades councils ([email protected])
QC appointed to lead the independent Unite inquiry into blacklisting (25 Mar) – Unite is delighted to announce that Nick Randall QC and John Carl Townsend have been appointed to investigate the possible collusion by union officers in blacklisting. Over the past months, evidence gathering by Thompsons solicitors has continued, with many blacklisted construction workers and other witnesses having already been interviewed. The work of the independent investigators is expected to start officially on 11 April read more
#SPYCops Inquiry exposes state surveillance of workers movement
Keep up with developments and read and watch campaigners’ statements on the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS) and Undercover Policing Inquiry websites and spycops info Facebook group
Builders Crack: The Movie
In the current situation, this long lost film from the 1990s about rank and file union organising in the construction industry is intended to lift the spirits, but also to spark a debate in our movement. Hope the youngsters in this film put a smile on your face.
Watch – Share – Discuss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VZ-QMA1FMg
Blacklist Support Group
Book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcgrNs6pB8
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/
Blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog
Blacklist Support Group financial appeal: the Blacklist support group is desperately short of funds, to continue the incredible work we need more finance, would you please consider making a donation, raise it at your branches and trade councils. Please make cheques payable to Joint sites committee and send to 70 Darnay Rise Chelmsford Essex CM1 4XA. Please forward onto your contacts many thanks Steve Kelly (JSC Treasurer)
Blacklisted t-shirts available at: https://shop.hopenothate.org.uk/component/hikashop/product/78-blacklisted-t-shirt
The NSSN is continuing to report on how workers are organising during the coronavirus pandemic
The NSSN is opening up our weekly email bulletin, website and social media platforms of Facebook and twitter to provide a public forum for workers during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis. We want to be a place where we can all share queries and experiences that workers are facing in their workplaces. These include reports of action taken by workers to defend themselves from their employers.
You can read about many of these actions in our weekly bulletin and out social media groups, especially our Facebook group: NSSN – defend workers’ rights under Coronavirus.
You can also send the NSSN your reports and queries via our website, twitter – @NSSN_AntiCuts and email – [email protected]
We welcome the information being sent to union members concerning the spread of coronavirus, including the Accord, Advance, AEP, AFA-CWA, ASLEF, BDA, BECTU Sector of Prospect, BFAWU, BOS-TU, College of Podiatry, Community, CSP, EIS, Equity, FBU, FDA, GMB, HCSA, MU, NAHT, NASUWT, National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD), Nautilus International, NEU, NGSU, NUJ, PFA, Prospect, RCM, SoR, TSSA, TUC, UCU, UNISON, Unite, URTU, USDAW, WGGB and the RCN
But it is absolutely vital that unions retain their ability to organise and act independently in defence of their members and workers generally. This includes the right of unions to take industrial action. We are already aware of workers being forced to take unofficial action on health and safety grounds. We also believe that unions should have oversight of any government bans on protests and picketing. This is the same Tory government that tabled more new anti-union laws in the Queens Speech in December 2019 and cannot be trusted and is now attacking the right to protest through its Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
We believe that it is essential that workers are protected during this worrying period and are not impacted, whether in terms of their safety as well as their pay and employment rights. The Tory government have announced measures that include some workers receiving 80% of their wages. This furlough scheme was due to finish but has now been extended because of the 2nd lockdown. But it’s clear that the Tories are looking to end it asap.
However, we believe that no worker should pay the price for any spread of the virus. We say: work or full pay. Any worker who is required not to attend work or is unable to do so because of COVID, childcare or transport closures should receive full pay and not be forced to take annual leave. But unions have to remain vigilant that any government payments actually happen and also covers all workers, including those in precarious employment such as zero-hour contracts and in the gig economy.
We have drafted this model motion which we’ve made into a bulletin that can be downloaded and printed off to be distributed. Feel free to use in your union and trades council, in totality or partially to highlight the issues that need to be addressed.
Keep an eye out for other Facebook and social media groups and pages that are being created. The Coronavirus Support Group for Workers has been set up on Facebook and is a useful forum and you can catch up on disputes at Strike Map UK
Diary
July
9 Durham Miners’ Gala 2022 Facebook event
15-17 Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival 2022 read more
September
11 NSSN TUC Rally 1pm Brighton
CONTACT US
PHONE 07952 283 558
EMAIL mailto:[email protected]
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/NSSN_AntiCuts
FACEBOOK NSSN GROUP or STOP The CUTS Likes page
ADDRESS NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE
