Public sector pay battle 2007-8

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

Civil service and Unison local government to ballot for strikes

The executive of the civil service union PCS has decided on a further "consultative ballot on national industrial action". The ballot started on 28 September and will close on 22 October. Local government workers in Unison will also ballot on strike action, against the 2.475% pay offer, from 5 October to 26 October. Unison has pencilled in two days’ strike action for 14-15 November. Encouraged by these moves, 19 members of the Executive of the National Union of Teachers have called for a special Exec meeting to review the NUT's timetable, which up to now has foreseen a ballot in November...

CWU to strike on 5-6 and 8-9 October

CWU postal workers will strike again on 5-6 and 8-9 October in their dispute with Royal Mail over pay and over the bosses' drive to transform the industry radically, with large job cuts, on free-market lines. The CWU's official announcement on 20 September read: The CWU’s Postal Executive have agreed the following strike dates: A 48 hour strike on the 5th & 6th October. A 48 hour strike on the 8th & 9th October. Week commencing 15th October a rolling programme of functional strikes to continue weekly until the resolution of the dispute. It is a bad sign that it took the postal Executive ten...

Public Sector Pay: Unite the Rank and File!

On Tuesday 11 September the TUC Congress, the annual gathering of delegates from all Britain's unions, voted for united action by all the public sector unions to beat Gordon Brown's decree that public sector pay rises should be limited to two per cent at a time when the retail price index shows 3.8%. Now the job is to make the union leaders deliver on that promise. Local trade unionists in some cities, notably Leeds and Luton, have already started to do that. They have set up local joint committees of delegates from the different public sector unions — postal workers from CWU, local government...

Local government: strike call blocked?

Local government employers have upped their pay offer to trade unions in an attempt to stave off industrial action. Their deal would give a 3.4% pay rise to the poorest paid council workers and 2.475% for all others. It’s still a paycut. On the other hand, while falling short of the aim of an increase in line with inflation it is the first major public sector deal to break the 2% limit. At TUC Brown made it clear that such pay restraint will be required for some years to come. Becuse Brown has been saying there will be no exceptions to 2% the employers have had to justify their offer by saying...

Unison health workers accept cut in real wages

Health workers in Unison have decided to accept the current pay offer of a staged 2.5% deal by a margin of 2:1. 56,045 voted in favour, 25,453 against. This result is a massive disappointment for those hoping for action against a pay cut. The immediate effect will be that this vote will be used to pressurise Unison’s Local Government Service Group Eexecutive, meeting this afternoon, Thursday 13th, to overturn the decision to move to a ballot for industrial action on local government pay. The Unison leadership is clearly working effectively across the sectors to limit any dissent. If the ballot...

Local government workers set to strike in November. Or maybe not?

The leadership (NJC) of the local government sector of the public services union Unison has voted for a strike ballot over pay . The right wing has convened a special meeting of the Service Group Executive (a larger committee), probably for Thursday 13 September. It looks as if they will try to stall the ballot by demanding a "consultation" of members on the offer take place first. On 12 September Unison's Northern Region Local Government committee held an emergency meeting, and, after a long and heated debate, voted 17 to 12 in favour of "referring back" the strike ballot decision. On the...

TUC Congress: Will Unions Co-ordinate Action Against Pay Cuts?

By Janine Booth Following Monday's debate on trade union freedom, the other biggy of TUC congress week was on Tuesday afternoon [12th], on public services and public sector pay. The TUC had attempted to sedate us all in advance, with guest speeches from not just the CBI but also government ministers Jacqui Smith and Peter Hain - the latter telling us that the government, trade unions and employers had reached an "historic consensus" on pension reform, prompting me to heckle "I didn't!". The two main composites were 12, on public serivces, and 13, on public sector pay. There was never any doubt...

PCS to "consult" yet again

If looks could kill... If "consultations" could crush, then civil service workers would already have a levelling-up of pay to across-the-service decent rates, and stopped the Government's drastic job cuts. After "consulting" its members at length over the summer about its barely-started campaign on jobs and pay, the civil service union PCS has announced that: "Feedback from the consultation meetings was that members clearly accept the need for further national action to resolve the dispute, alongside other unions if possible". So the PCS will call action? Alongside the postal workers, due to...

Luton trade unionists set up solidarity committee

Trade unionists in Luton are setting up a joint committee to organise solidarity with the postal workers and other disputes now developing. It follows the example of a similar committee in Leeds . The organisers write: "Even though the strikes have been postponed we all share a common interest and a common enemy. Let’s unite to defend our jobs and services". The group is meeting on Wednesday 12 September, 6pm at the Postels Club, Dunstable Rd, Luton. The speakers include John Farnon (CWU) and Charlie McDonald (PCS). More: lutonunionsunite@btinternet.com

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