Pay, hours, conditions

The report on the FBU’s pay deal in Solidarity 663 had the whiff of toy-town syndicalism. Instead of interrogating the FBU’s strategy, it exhorts firefighters to strike for the sake of it. Solidarity ignores the specific industrial relations context. The FBU has UK-wide collective bargaining — the National Joint Council. It is under attack from Westminster, the inspectorate, chief fire officers and employers. The White Paper published last May is designed to weaken the FBU, while giving chiefs carte blanche. The Minimum Service Levels Bill may undermine firefighter strikes. Solidarity fails to...

Our strikes continue to be solid. We can see the impact at workplace level through things like the closure of the British Museum. Although nothing substantive came out of our last national-level meeting with the Cabinet Office, it was noteworthy that, on the day of that meeting, there was a story in the Financial Times reporting that the government was considering altering the pay anniversary date to set it in January, which means that, whenever a pay deal is settled, our members would receive a greater amount of back pay. We have had no formal notification of that proposal, but it is...

Seven thousand nurses in two major New York City hospitals struck in January for three days, and won significant improvements to their contracts. For many strikers the key issues related to unsafe workloads and low pay. The promised deal will provide nursing staff a 19% pay rise (spread over three years), and — in a bid to tackle chronic under-staffing of hospitals — the introduction of 170 new nursing jobs across the two sites and guaranteed patient staffing ratios. Their short, sharp action won the day, and is inspiring others. Earlier this month, 800 nurses nearby on Long Island voted 99%...

"Turning it round for 15-16 March!" — Workers' Liberty picket line bulletin #20, Feb. 14 2023. Download here!

The RCN looks likely to call a 48-hour strike on 1-3 March, with a reduction of derogations in A&E, intensive care, and cancer units. Unison is thought to be looking for unified strike action with other unions. Escalation and co-ordination are vital and supported by members on the picket lines. For the strikes to win a strategy of increasing action over a short period of time will be much more effective than a long haul of strike days here and there. It’s also important that striking members articulate their demands to maintain pressure on the union leaderships. The RCN demand of 5% above...

As Solidarity goes to press on 14 February, the Higher Education unions have been in talks with employers at the government arbitration service ACAS. In the Guardian , Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, which represents teaching and higher-grade professional staff, has hinted that improvements on non-pay elements such as workload, casualisation and equalities might be key to a deal. Enforceable framework agreements on these issues would certainly be welcome, but they need to be accompanied by a serious pay rise, not another below-inflation offer. Any offer we do get should be discussed in...

Tens of thousands of nurses (RCN) and ambulance service staff (Unite and GMB) walked out on Monday 6 February in a pay dispute, in the first coordinated day of health strikes in this strike wave. Nurses and ambulance workers have previously been striking separately since late last year. Nurses will also walk out on Tuesday 7 February, Unison ambulance staff on Friday 10th, and physiotherapists on Thursday 9th, making the week "probably the most disruptive in NHS history" according to Medical Director Stephen Powis. NHS bosses are putting pressure on the government to reopen pay negotiations...

A round of balloting before Christmas in Unison Higher Education disappointingly failed to deliver a new tranche of branches for the 2022/23 pay action. Only three more branches got over the 50% turnout threshold; these were branches that had taken slightly longer over balloting. This highlighted that a lot of the problems with delivering a vote for strike were technical: a shortened timescale for balloting as Unison tried to catch up to the UCU timetable; problems with issuing and receiving ballot papers in the post throughout the CWU strikes; balloting around Christmas time; little support...

Bus drivers working for Abellio in London have had over 20 days of strikes and continue to be in dispute. Abellio are notorious for being one of the lowest paying bus companies in London. Forensic accountants from the drivers' union, Unite, showed that the parent company Abellio Transport Holdings BV Netherlands had systematically removed £20 million from the London bus operation over 20 years and had held down wages to reduce staff costs from 65% of sales in 2010 to 50% of sales in 2020. Unite balloted members three times in 2022. The first two ballots failed to reach the anti-union law...

Members of the GMB employed by the RCN as union staff are undergoing a consultative ballot over the latest pay offer from the union. The GMB put in a claim for 12.6%, but the RCN Executive has returned, after negotiations, with an offer far lower than that. Grades F and below (£23k to £48K, not including London weighting) are being offered 5.6%; the higher grades (paid between £60k and £138k, not including London weighting) between 4% and 2%. All grades are also offered an additional £1,200 unconsolidated payment. The RCN has a lot of staff, many of whom earn significantly more than the...