Defend our right to strike

Tory proposals in the Trade Union Bill to impose new industrial action ballot thresholds for turnout (50%) and support (in 'essential services' 40% of all balloted) 'would make almost all strikes illegal, particularly in large and dispersed workforces where postal ballots rarely achieve this' writes Michael Meacher MP. http://www.leftfutures.org/2015/06/tory-trade-union-bill-is-an-attack-on-a-fundamental-human-right/
    The proposals if implemented (without a return to workplace balloting) will severely undermine national bargaining with union's unable to exert leverage in future negotiations on pay, pensions etc.
     The Trade Union Bill is a political attack on trade union rights as vicious as any law enacted during the Thatcher era. A major campaign inside and outside of Parliament is required to resist this draconian legislation.

Northern Ireland says NO to Austerity

#M13 Over 50,000 public service workers, including UNISON members, across Northern Ireland took 24 hour all out strike action against austerity cuts yesterday. Education, health, transport and council services were brought to a halt in response to the cross-party Stormont House agreement which will cut 20,000 public sector jobs over the next 4 years. A well supported march and lunchtime rally was held in Belfast and 10 other towns.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-31858483

NHS Pay Dispute - Where Next?

On Monday thousands of NHS workers took to the picket lines for the second time in six weeks. Following the huge success of the action on 13th October, 9 health unions called their members out for a further 4 hours strike on 24th November.
    The action demonstrated a few important things.
     Firstly the public still remains supportive of the health workers case. Picket lines across the country received messages of support from the public with representatives of non health unions turning up in solidarity. Secondly the mood among members is still angry and determined, and thirdly the government does not yet feel sufficiently worried to try and resolve the dispute.

NHS Unions can make Con Dem's pay for reneging on PRB pay rise

Following last week’s health service group executive and subsequent liaison with other NHS unions, UNISON has confirmed that our members working in the NHS in England will stage a further four-hour stoppage between 7am and 11am on Monday 24 November. This will be followed by a week of action short of strike action between Tuesday 25 and Sunday 30 November when members will work to rule and not do any unpaid overtime. The stakes are high and it’s vital that the next strike (now joined by radiographers) builds on the impressive action taken on 13 October.  The Con Dem decision to unilaterally reject the recommendation of the independent NHS pay review body for a ‘1 per cent increase to all Agenda for Change pay points from 1 April 2014’ was compounded by the decision to award non consolidated 1% cash payments only to staff on the top of pay bands, thus discriminating against the 60% of staff receiving contractual increments this year. Public support is overwhelmingly with NHS workers and if the joint action can be sustained into 2015 the Con Dem’s can be forced to pay a heavy political price for this unprecedented attack on health workers.

Building the fight for fair pay in the NHS

#NHSpay This week has seen UNISON lead the NHS trade unions into industrial action over pay for the first time in 32 year, the first time coincidentally since the year I was born.
    Monday's four hour stoppage by UNISON, Unite, the GMB, and most notably the Royal College of Midwives, saw disruption across the health service. Appointments and operations delayed or rearranged, wards and departments not cleaned, non-striking managers pushing beds around instead of porters. But more importantly perhaps it got huge and mostly supportive media attention and a huge amount of public support, be that people coming and talking to the picket lines, on radio phone-ins or social media.

Public service strikers are standing up for the real Britain

'After years of real pay cuts public service workers are fighting back' writes Seumas Milne of the

Kingston UNISON midwives on NHS strike

Guardian in an article taking stock of the upsurge in public sector strike action since July. Milne rightly identifies the toxic mix of austerity and privatisation as the key factors in the squeeze on the pay and job security of Britain's public services workforce:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/16/public-service-strikers-standing-up-for-britain

Still the Enemy Within reviewed - remembering the lessons of 1984/85 Miners Strike

#stilltheenemywithin In yesterday’s NHS strike, soldiers were deployed to ambulance stations in some parts of the country, as England’s Chief Nursing Officer claimed that ‘robust plans’ were in place to counter the industrial action. Such a disproportionate state response to a 4 hour stoppage in public services shows that nothing much has changed in the industrial landscape since the 1984/85 miners strike.

The new documentary film Still the Enemy Within is a powerful reminder of the extraordinary struggle of the National Union of Mineworkers to defend their communities and livelihoods in the face of a calculated attack by a ruthless Tory Government. Using a combination of personal testimonies, archive footage, photographs and re-enactment, the film reflects on what the strike achieved in terms of solidarity and struggle but perhaps more importantly why it ultimately resulted in defeat. An important fact highlighted early in the film is that only 16,000 of the NUM’s then 160,000 membership were active on the frontline during the strike.

Solidarity with the NHS workers strike!

#Oct13 #NHSPay Monday 13th October will see the first national pay strike in the National Health Service in England for over thirty years. UNISON, RCM, Unite and GMB members across the country will take strike action for 4 hours from 07.00 until 11.00.
   Nurses, Health Care Assistants, Paramedics, Midwives, Occupational Therapists, Porters, Security, Technicians, Administrative and Clerical staff will stand shoulder to shoulder to show their anger at Jeremy Hunt’s decision to single them out for the worst pay settlement in the public sector. Hunt rejected the miserable 1% recommended by the NHS Pay Review Body and instead imposed an unconsolidated 1% only for those on the top point in each pay band.

Gearing up for strike action on pay

An impressive and growing number of UNISON members are now being balloted for industrial action to beat the Coalition Government’s public sector pay freeze. Ballots of NHS members in England and Wales close on 18 September and 20 October respectively. Ballots of local government members in NJC conditioned academy schools and SJC conditioned members in Scotland close on 24 September and 29 September respectively. There is also the possibility of Police Staff holding an industrial action ballot if the recent consultative ballot delivers a majority for rejection of a 1% offer.
    However balloting is not an end in itself. As local government branches in England, Wales and Northern Ireland gear up for a second day of national strike action on 14 October momentum is building for co-ordinated action. Delivering effective action and securing improved outcomes at the negotiating table is the biggest challenge facing UNISON and other recognised unions this autumn:
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/unions-mobilise-for-an-autumn-of-protest-over-pay

FSA strike to go ahead as pay scraps rejected

A strike by workers employed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will go ahead on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week after the FSA refused another offer by UNISON to try to settle the dispute through independent conciliation. UNISON is in dispute with the FSA following its decision not to pass on a 1% cost of living pay rise to its staff. Instead, a 0.75% rise was imposed, while the remainder was distributed to a selective part of the workforce, despite the concerns of trade unions.
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/food-standard-agency-strike-to-go-ahead-after-employer-refuses-offer-to-try-to-settle-dispute

Concerted union action required to reverse pay decline

This week’s figures from the Office of National Statistics confirming that real wages have fallen for the first time since 2009 will come as no surprise to public service workers. And the implications of the Bank of England’s prediction that real wages will not begin to rise until 2015 are clear.
   Wage growth requires a concerted push by trade unions. Planned local protest action next Wednesday aims to keep up momentum in the local government NJC dispute ahead of strike action on 14 October. If attempts to engage the Food Standards Agency in ACAS talks are unsuccessful, a high profile strike by UNISON meat inspectors could be imminent. Also, two important industrial action ballots are due to start in the near future.
    On 28 August ballot papers will be sent to 300,000 UNISON members in the NHS, followed on 9 September by the industrial action ballot of UNISON’s Scottish local government members in the SJC pay dispute. Effective co-ordination and prosecution of these important disputes is the only way that the decline in real wages in public services can be reversed. The solution is in our own hands.

Care UK strikers 'deserve all our support'

Today’s Observer editorial gives backing to striking UNISON members at Care UK: ‘The Doncaster workers merit, at the very least, a living wage, as do all care workers. Government is initially the prime mover in ensuring sufficient funds; shareholders may have to see their dividends reduced. But in a fair society, that is surely is as it should be.’ Elsewhere in the same paper economist Will Hutton identifies ‘privatisation by stealth’ as the root cause of the exploitation of former NHS care workers and endorses the long running strike which will be escalated next week: ‘Good on them, and these are words you don't read often, good on the union. They deserve all our support’

Opposing Austerity - organising and action strategies

'UK trade unions have not developed adequate strategies to challenge the acceleration of neoliberal transformation of public services through outsourcing, private finance and privatisation,' writes Dexter Whitfield in a briefing for The Australian Workplace Innovation and Research Centre (WISeR). In a wide ranging analysis of both trade union and political responses to austerity in Europe and North America since 2008, Whitfield concludes that the labour movement has been found wanting and calls for the development of more participative democratic forms of decision making: 'Traditional industrial action, such as one-day strikes and large national demonstrations had an important role in strengthening solidarity and gaining support, but did not significantly change austerity policies'
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/wiser/docs/WISeR-ESSU_OpposingAusterity2014.pdf

Slow fuse pay campaign set to detonate in October

This week’s welcome confirmation of Tuesday 14 October as the next strike day in the NJC local government pay dispute (which has rumbled on since April) not only opens up the possibility of co-ordinated action with health - the NHS pay industrial action ballot opens on 28 August - but could draw in UNISON local government members in Scotland who are also set to ballot for strike action over pay.
     It is essential that local union branches use the intervening 10 weeks to step up the pay campaign, in particular seeking the support of councillors for an improved pay offer - which is the only way the dispute can be won.

Pay campaigning and the future of public services

The current national pay campaigns in local government and health are a necessary and overdue response to Government pay policies which have resulted in public service workers being on average £2,245 worse off in real terms.
    All of the unions involved, especially UNISON as the largest, have a heavy responsibility to halt this unprecedented downward spiral in earnings and to force employers (and politicians) to respect collective bargaining and pay determination processes.
    The stakes are high. In addition to halting the unjustified pay detriment of our members and restoring union credibility, Professor Roger Seifert, reviewing the impact of the 10 July coordinated strike action, argues that the pay campaign poses a much wider question - ‘what do our main political leaders consider to be the future of UK public services? Pay cuts, workload increases, further supply-side fragmentation, and privatisation suggest not just a down-grading of all public services but a removal of some services from public access’

We are long overdue a fair pay rise and we will do what we have to do to get one

#J10strike Sue Glithero, Chair of UNISON's NJC Committee, which is leading the local government pay dispute, set out the union's position at today's joint union strike rally in Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens: 'I call on our local councillors to do what they know is right. To put pressure on their own local authority, for it to put pressure on the national employers - and on central government if necessary - to give a fair pay rise to local government and school support workers. We are long overdue one. We know one is affordable. Our national employers know one is affordable. The Government knows one is affordable. And we will do what we have to, to get one.That is why local government and school support workers are striking today. UNISON stands ready to negotiate openly. But if the national employers refuse to engage with honesty and fairness - then we will strike again'

Full speech below

Why public service workers are taking strike action

#J10strike Today's strike by public sector workers is a 'manifestation of the anger and frustration they feel about the sustained attack on pay and pensions that has played havoc with their living standards and seems to have no end in sight', says the TUC Touchstone blog. For a list of events today see the TUC website here and the UNISON website here.

WHY STRIKE TOMORROW? #J10strike

• Because Local Government workers are chronically underpaid.

• Because our inadequate pay levels have been subject to a freeze, meaning a pay cut of 20% since the coalition came to power.

• Because our employers seem happy to leave millions below the living wage level, rather than pay wages that would take them off benefits

• Because low wages and salaries leave local government workers facing food or fuel bills they cannot afford. Eat or Heat should not be a dilemma we face.

• Because local authorities are sitting on reserves of £18 BILLION

• Because local government cuts mean that as redundancies bite, the remaining workers face an uphill struggle to keep services running.

• Because further cuts to services are just around the corner with consequent increased workload for the remaining staff

• Because privatisation, outsourcing and restructuring are disrupting delivery of services

• Because the democratic accountability and character of public services is being undermined by current government policies, such as the Council Tax cap and the provisions of the Care Act;

• Because the services that our communities rely on, from care for the elderly, to family services, from education to food hygiene, from bin collection to museums and libraries are being decimated.

• Because politicians, both local and national, have washed their hands of local democracy

• Because if no one else will stand up for well paid, well resourced, locally accountable democratic services, local government workers must.

STAND UP FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT – TAKE ACTION TOMORROW

Jane Carolan

The case for an improved pay offer in local government is unanswerable

#J10strike 'What has motivated our members to take strike action this year when they were reluctant last year and the one before that? Quite simply – that ‘nothing to lose’ feeling and the growing realisation that if they don’t act now, they might soon be paying councils for the privilege of having a job at all! We have done the sums on their pensions too and the results don’t make pretty reading. Unless a stop is put to the decline in their pay, they will spend the rest of their lives on even lower pensions than the pittance most were in line to receive anyway. And the state will have to foot a larger bill for their retirement' UNISON head of local government Heather Wakefield writes on the Public Finance blog:
http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2014/07/a-pay-offer-council-workers-must-refuse/

All systems go for July 10 national pay strike!

#J10strike Enormous momentum is building for next Thursday's NJC pay strike in England, Northern Ireland and Wales with UNISON being joined by GMB and Unite in a united front that has often proven elusive in recent years. Many UNISON branches are reporting high levels of recruitment since last Monday's call to action. Membership confidence has been lifted by decisions this week by the FBU, PCS and NUT to strike and make 10 July a very welcome day of co ordinated action. Each of those long running disputes are broader than the NJC pay strike involving pensions and workload issues but the root cause is of course the same - austerity and the offensive launched against public sector workers launched by the Con Dem government since its first spending review in October 2010:
https://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/local-government/key-issues/local-government-pay/home/