Pay, hours, conditions

older

Economics: trim our ship for storms

What are the lessons from the Budget; the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse; and the figures showing Feb-2022-to-Feb-2023 UK inflation a tad up on Jan-2022-to-Jan-2023, after three months of slight decline in those year-on-year figures?

Pay: still time to turn the tide

Despite the votes to accept poor offers on Network Rail and by RCN in NHS Scotland, and despite the suspension of strikes on Train Operating Companies, there is still potential to remobilise and turn the tide. But workers need independent rank-and-file organisation to develop alternative strategies in disputes. RCN (Royal College of Nursing) in Scotland has announced that among its members in Scotland. 53.3% voted to accept the offer, 46.6% voted to reject, on a turnout of just over 50%. The offer is a 6.5% rise in 2023-4 (or for some, fractionally more) for all staff up to and inclusive of...

Letter: Listen and learn from workers

Ollie Moore ( Solidarity 666 ; longer version on web, shorter in print) seems to have learned nothing from the recent firefighters’ pay dispute. On 6 March, FBU members voted overwhelmingly by 96% on an 84% turnout to accept the offer, yet Moore still claims they were wrong and should have rejected it. Moore barely discusses the specifics of the firefighters’ pay offer, which included 7% for 2022-23. Nobody disputes that this is less than current inflation. CPI was 10% in the last 12 months; CPIH was 8.8%. But most firefighters also got increased Continual Professional Development and other...

UCU: union democracy needed

As Solidarity goes to press (28 March), higher education members of UCU are being asked whether to move to a formal consultation on employers’ proposals in their two disputes, one over the pre-92 university pension scheme USS, and one on pay and pay-related elements across the sector. Alongside this, a reballot continues (to 31 March), allowing six months’ further action. There has been real progress on USS, with a commitment to restoration of benefits. There are still potential pitfalls as the details are thrashed out, but it seems unlikely that more action in that dispute at present will...

Solid strike wins 16.2%

Drivers working for the National Express bus company have won a 16.2% pay rise, better accident pay, and higher rates for Christmas holiday working, in a one year deal. The 3,100 drivers from nine bus garages across the West Midlands struck for six days and had stayed on strike while the company offer was voted on by members. The campaign had been coordinated by the reps working closely with the Unite Bus Combine. The reps were critical of the role of union full-time officers in previous disputes, and had failed to get over the threshold in a ballot of members in the last pay round. The strike...

Amazon workers fight back: "We want to reach out to more and more sites"

Amazon workers at the BHX4 facility in Coventry have been striking, most recently from 13-17 March, in their fight for a £15/hour minimum wage and other improvements to terms and conditions. Darren Westwood, an Amazon worker and GMB union activist, spoke to Solidarity about the ongoing campaign. See also: "Building workers' power at Amazon" , interview with an Amazon worker from December 2022. The mood in the workplace is really good – we've grown the membership, so we're obviously doing something right. Management has calmed down a bit recently, backing off from some of the more...

NHS: reject the pay offer, organise to escalate

The result of the government negotiations with the RCN, Unison, GMB, Unite and CSP on behalf of health workers on Agenda for Change contracts in England was announced on 16 March - a one off taxed payment for 2022-23 between £1655 and £3789 increasing by pay band, and 5% for 2023-24. The health unions will run online member consultations on the offer in the next few weeks. RCN and Unison from 28 March -14 April, GMB from 3 April and Unite 31 March to 28t April. RCN, Unison and GMB are recommending the offer, and Unite will not make a recommendation. Over the preceding months the government had...

How doctors are organising

Manchester-based junior doctor and British Medical Association (BMA) activist Grace Allport spoke to us about junior doctors’ strikes over pay. Here we publish some more from the discussion. I work in Wigan. I started my activity with the BMA as a medical student at Manchester University, which was a good place to get involved because it was quite a political campus and a very big one in terms of medical students. That meant we also sent big delegations to the medical students conference and the ARM [Annual Representative Meeting, the BMA’s national conference]. After graduating I sat on the...

NHS Workers Say No issue "vote no" leaflet

The NHS Workers Say No! group has put out a leaflet calling on health workers to vote no to the current offer and organise for renewed industrial action at a higher tempo. Click here for the PDF

Royal Mail dispute: use the mandate!

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) issued an update to its members in Royal Mail on 17 March , informing them that negotiations with the company are ongoing. Whilst they have, the statement says, “been extremely difficult”, there is “enough in talks to warrant continuing them.” The statement says the union is “currently analysing the key differences between the two parties [itself and Royal Mail]”, and is “putting forward a clear view to the company on how we resolve them.” How a dispute is resolved should not only be a matter for union negotiators and officials to develop through the...

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