GMB

General, Municipal and Boilermakers' Union

Steel unions call ballots for action

A spirited demo of 700 steel workers and their local supporters took place in Port Talbot on Saturday 17 February. Tata, the owner of the steel works in Port Talbot, has announced that it plans to shut down permanently the blast furnaces that make steel from iron ore and coal. Tata will sack 2,800 steel workers. Tata says the furnaces are loss-making and cite the need to move to a system of making steel that produces less CO 2 to lever cash from the Government. The Tory Government have stumped up £500 million to help Tata build a new electric arc furnace that will be able to smelt and recycle...

Amazon strikes again at BHX4

Workers at Amazon’s BHX4 facility in Coventry will strike again on 13-15 February. Their campaign of strikes to win a £15/hour minimum wage has now seen them take over 30 days of action. The GMB union’s membership at the warehouse now stands at over 1,000. The strike comes after union members recently voted to renew their industrial action mandate for a further six months. Amazon has upped its anti-union efforts, distributing leaflets within the workplace saying the GMB wants to speak “for” workers whereas Amazon wants to speak “to” them: “You don’t have to join a union to have your voice...

Amazon faces more strikes after Sutton Coldfield action

Workers at a new Amazon fulfilment centre in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, struck on 25 January, demanding a £15/hour minimum wage and other improvements to terms and conditions. Although the GMB union’s membership at the site represents only a small minority of the workforce, the strike has an outsized symbolic significance. Previously GMB’s campaign of strikes in Amazon has been centred on the BHX4 warehouse in Coventry, where it has its largest membership base (plus one strike at a site in Rugeley, Staffordshire). Even a minority strike at a new site can be an important beacon for spreading...

Amazon workers prepare for 28th strike

Workers at Amazon’s BHX4 facility in Coventry are preparing to strike on 24 November, “Black Friday”, a major trading day for Amazon. The walkout will be the workers’ 28th of the year, with official strikes having first taken place in January. 2022 saw unofficial strikes over pay at a number of Amazon facilities. Amazon workers in the USA, Germany, and Italy will also strike on Black Friday, with protests planned in other countries, organised via Make Amazon Pay, a coalition of unions and campaign groups. GMB union membership at BHX4 now stands around 1,000, five times the level prior to the...

Amazon strikes resume

Amazon workers at the BHX4 facility in Coventry resume strikes on 7 November, walking out for three days, with a further strike planned on 24 November, the so-called “Black Friday” which is a major trading day for Amazon and other retailers. 24 November will also see strikes and other protests against Amazon in over 30 other countries. Speaking to a recent conference of the “Make Amazon Pay” campaign coalition, US senator Bernie Sanders said: “No company is a better poster child for the corporate greed and arrogance that we are seeing in the US, the UK and throughout the world than Amazon.”...

Veolia workers accept

After three weeks striking for a pay rise, waste management workers at three Veolia sites in Nottinghamshire have voted to accept a £500 one off cost of living award which will be paid in January. The deal also included commitments from Veolia to change the workplace culture but they’ve already reneged on that at the Forest Town site by stopping smoke breaks and trying to discipline some strikers. GMB Veolia drivers, who also got the payment, have been asking why they weren’t balloted even though they would have had an impact in the dispute. Stranger still, some of those drivers have now left...

Amazon workers strike on Black Friday

Workers at Amazon’s BHX4 facility in Coventry will strike on 7-9 and 24 November as their fight for better pay and conditions goes on. The strikes will take the number of walkouts at BHX4 since the dispute began to nearly 30. Amazon has recently announced an intention to increase hourly pay by just £1, a move dismissed by the GMB union as coming nowhere near meeting workers’ needs. The strike is timed to cover Black Friday (24 November), a major trading day for Amazon globally. GMB organiser Rachel Fagan said: “This is an unprecedented and historic moment with low-paid workers taking on one of...

Letters: Veolia demand a distraction?

Pro-Ukraine activists in the UK seem to have tacked on to the Veolia workers’ pay dispute in Notts the demand for the company to pull out of Russia, as an act of solidarity with Ukraine’s fight against the Russian imperialist invasion. Clearly, as I have already stated, the Veolia workers’ pay dispute should be supported. My objection is that the additional demand is a distraction and wrong. Firstly, because the demand for Veolia to pull out off Russia will have no impact on Putin’s war. If Veolia gave in tomorrow it would not stop a single Russian bullet being fired. Putin’s state (in so far...

Veolia strikers to vote on offer

After a meeting with management at ACAS, striking GMB workers at three Veolia waste-management sites in Nottinghamshire will vote soon on a new offer. One member described it as nothing to get excited about. It includes an agreement to negotiate on other issues. After a strong start workers stopped challenging lorries bringing loads into the facilities, having been cowed by management threats. Some members of the local Trades Council and a few socialist activists have succeeded in blocking the entrance until the police turn up, which does enthuse the pickets. But the numbers and availability...

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