Public sector pay battle 2007-8

Birmingham City Council workers will strike again on 23 and 24 April over the council’s plans to use “single status” negotiations to cut pay and jobs. Unison, T&G Unite, GMB, Amicus and UCATT made the call on 9 April. They will stage pickets at refuse depots, schools, libraries, offices and care homes on each morning before joining a rally in Victoria Square at noon on Thursday April 24. Many years back, local government employers and unions agreed a Single Status “framework” at national level, to put blue-collar and white-collar workers into a single pay structure. But each local authority...

Several weeks overdue, the health service Pay Review Body finally made its recommendation to the government on 4 April — three days after the rise should have been implemented. The PRB recommended an increase of 2.75% — considerably below the current inflation rate of 4.1% (based on RPI). As if this were not bad enough, health union officials then spent the weekend in talks with the government and to thrash out a three-year deal starting with the PRB’s recommended 2.75% in this year, followed by 2.4% next year and 2.25% the year after. There is an option to re-open negotiations on the second...

On 1 April the NUT National Executive received the results of the ballot for a one day strike to protest at the continuing cuts in teachers’ real pay. When the result was known there was no hesitation in agreeing to call the action on 24 April. Indeed the vote to proceed with a strike was unanimous. We now need to ensure that the first national teachers’ strike for 21 years is as successful as possible. All NUT members in all schools are asked to take part in the action. Every NUT member is now protected by this ballot and is fully entitled to take part. Unions representing other teachers and...

The NUT National Executive met today to consider the results of our ballot for one day strike action on pay. 75.2% of members voted in favour of action on a turnout of 32%. On the basis of this result there was no hesitation in calling for the strike to go ahead on Thursday April 24th. The vote to proceed with the strike was unanimous on the Executive. Over the next three weeks local branches of the union will be working full-on to build the strike, maximise the turnout and organise mass rallies all over the country on the day. There is every likelihood that the UCU FE sector and thousands of...

The health workers' section of the public service workers' union Unison has its conference in April. The Unison Health Service Group Exec met on 26 March, and a very strong minority opposed the top union officials' line that the union should accept a multi-year deal at whatever the official Pay Review Body proposes. The essence of the debate is whether or not to fight the Government's plan to impose three-year formulas cutting real wages across the public sector. Unison Health Service Group Exec member Nick Holden reports: "The main dispute was over motions 17, 18 and 19, and the amendments to...

Driving examiners strike The pay and jobs disputes in the Department for Transport (DfT) continue. Following a one day strike on 29 February by seven of the eight bargaining units within DfT, staff in the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) took a day of action on 6 March. The union in DfT has followed this up with targeted action in the Driving Standards Agency. This targeted action will mean that administrative staff take a half day’s strike on 20 March. Driving examiners take a 2.5 hour strike on the 20th and a 1.5 hour strike on the 25th. The union calculates that this action will nearly have...

Delegates will meet at the National Union of Teachers Conference in Manchester this month (21-24 March) in the middle of the union’s first national strike ballot for 22 years. Most activists are expecting a strong yes vote to endorse the union’s opposition to a 2008-10 pay deal which offers three further years of pay cuts. Tory-era trade union laws on balloting have however made it much harder for workers to take part in union ballots and much more likely that they will not even receive a ballot paper. Such conditions may effect turnout in this ballot. Should the ballot be successful, however...

On the 29 February members of the PCS union in the Department for Transport (DfT) took strike action over low and unequal pay, jobs and privatisation. The strike had a great impact: • Picket lines were in operation across Britain; • MPs joined the pickets in Stockton, Northampton and in London; • At the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) the support was very strong, with the huge main office in Swansea making top billing on BBC Wales at lunchtime. Local activists believe that it was the best supported action held in Swansea for years; • In the local DVLA office network members managed...

Before Christmas, Ken Livingstone promised to pay the “‘London Living Wage” of £7.20 an hour to Underground cleaners when he took over Metronet. Unsurprisingly, he has not delivered. Transport for London has delayed taking over Metronet and Livingstone has gone quiet about the pay rise. Therefore cleaners in both the RMT and the T&G are pressing ahead with plans for a strike. Ballot papers will go out in March and cleaners should strike in April - hopefully alongside other Tube workers fighting casualisation and in time to embarrass Livingstone before London elections on May 1.

This leaflet from Leeds NUT outlines the reasons why teachers are fighting for better pay. Activists in every union, especially public sector unions, need to put the teachers’ case to other groups of workers. This is an important pay battle that we should all help the teachers to win. A special meeting of the NUT National Executive on 24 January decided to call on its members to support industrial action to challenge the teachers pay award for 2008-11. The ballot will open on 28 February and the planned strike day is Thursday 24 April. Here are ten key reasons for teachers to support this call...