Public sector pay battle 2007-8

The campaign against Gordon Brown's 2%% pay limit for public sector workers

NUT -Pay Freeze Ballot

The NUT National Executive voted yesterday to confirm plans to ballot members to oppose the government’s planned pay limit for public sector workers. These plans will see the union ballot members in schools from 10 December 10 until January 8th with an initial strike day set for January 30. The Secretary of State for Education is due to receive the report from the teachers’ pay review body on the settlement for 2008-11 on 26 October, and usually responds within weeks. The union leadership was keen to delay any ballot until the award for 2008-11 was known to members. I proposed (and Alex Kenny...

CWU need to match bosses daring

The postal workers’ four day walk-out on 5-9 October was, once again, approaching 95% solid. More strikes are planned from 15 October, and there can be no doubt that they will be solid too. But will they be enough to win? The Royal Mail bosses have shown daring and determination — cynically using talks to demobilise the union without any intention of making concessions, then launching a series of attacks. They have unilaterally imposed changed working hours, shut Royal Mail’s final-salary pension scheme, and announced closure of militant Mail Centres such as Oxford and Reading. It is clear...

CWU to strike again from 15 October

The CWU has announced further 24 hour postal workers' strikes from Monday 15 October. It will be rolling action, mail centres on Monday/Tuesday, delivery offices on Tuesday/Wednesday, and other sections on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Although the latest official CWU announcement sets action only for the week beginning 15 October, earlier union declarations have projected a continuation of that sort of rolling action until the dispute is settled. The details for the week beginning 15 October are: * Mail centres and airports - duties, scheduled attendance and overtime commencing at or after...

New "Unions Fightback" bulletin on public sector pay battle

The new Unions Fightback bulletin covers the CWU's renewed action, from 4 October; the development of local public sector workers' solidarity committees; the Unison local government pay ballot; and developments in PCS and NUT. Download it here (see "attachment" below).

DWP Pay Dispute

Following their rejection of a three year pay offer that will see 27% of staff in the Department of Work and Pensions staff get consolidated rises of 2% in year 1, 40% get 0% in year 2 and 49% get 1% in year 3, PCS and Prospect have met with DWP bosses for further talks. Another meeting is taking place as we go to press, with the PCS DWP executive meeting on 27 September “to receive a report of these talks and take decisions on the next stage of our campaign.” (The Retail Price Index rate of inflation — PCS’s preferred measure — rose to from 3.8% in July to 4.1% in August.) It is not clear yet...

Defend Karen Reissmann

Manchester mental health workers have held a second three day strike to protest against the victimisation of their UNISON steward, Karen Reissmann. Karen was suspended in June for supposedly bringing the health trust she works for into disrepute after leading a previous strike against cut jobs and making public plans to cut services. Workers have decided to take two day strike action again from Wednesday 26 September. Patients bussed as far away as Darlington returned to their usual hospitals following the second strike but it is unclear whether that means that management has accepted the...

3 November NHS Demo

The long awaited national demonstration in defence of the NHS will take place on 3 November. It’s now 18 months since the decision to call a demo was made at UNISON’s health conference, but it has been an ongoing battle to make it happen. This despite the widespread popularity of such an idea with many hundreds of thousands taking part in local actions. Local campaigns have had great successes in stopping closures and saving jobs. But its been widely understood that local cuts are only symptoms of the national decisions made to further privatise the health service. We needed a national...

Build Local Solidarity

At TUC conference motions were passed calling for coordinated action, and use was even found for the old slogan that “unity is strength”. But behind the scenes union leaders were singing a different tune... Unison’s Health group ballot on pay got a 2 to 1 vote for accepting a staged 2.5% deal. This followed efforts by full time officers to close down any campaign for a no vote. A majority of NHS workers in England will now get a rise of 1.9% this year, half of even the most conservative inflation figure. The setback was used to try and pressure Unison’s Local Government Executive to back down...

OUR POSTMAN IS A POET

Our postman is a poet Today, I found that out. No, it’s not that unusual - There’s loads of us about. And he’s not any old poet - He’s a hippie poet for sure I found that out as well today. I’m going to tell you more… He knocked to give me the junk mail And pass the time of day. He talked about the postal strike And warned of the delay. Began apologetically Explained about their action - A great big smile lit up his face When he saw my reaction…… I told him I’m a leftie poet And if there’s one thing I like It’s people fighting for their rights And going out on strike! I gave him solidarity A...

Royal Mail bosses on the offensive

Royal Mail bosses have decided to go for broke by slashing postal workers' pensions. The workers are already due to strike over pay on 5-6 October, 8-9 October, and in a rolling programme after that. According to The Times , 24 September: Royal Mail plans to close its final-salary pension scheme to all employees... Royal Mail is expected to write to employees soon to outline sweeping changes to the pension scheme, including raising the retirement age by five years. Its move to close the final-salary scheme for existing employees, along with new ones, is almost unprecedented... Usually...

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