PCS

Most of us mere mortals only have to deal with the Land Registry on the rare occasion we are buying or selling a house (and given current house prices we can dream on). But supposing you have a house and for whatever reason you needed to find who owns the land your house stands on, or the open land, wasteland or coppice at the back of your house? Easy (or rather, c’est facile). You go to the local Mayor’s office and he or she will get out a huge book of maps which show all the land ownership (its fancy name is a cadastre) in your local area. Even better — you won’t be charged for this, the...

Strikers at the National Gallery, London, returned to work on Monday 5 October after 111 days on strike. They have secured a deal which protects members’ terms and conditions and sees their sacked PCS rep reinstated. The deal, which was made on Friday 2 October, does not stop the privatisation of gallery services but is a big climb down by gallery management in most areas, and the gallery has agreed to review the private contract after one year Sacked PCS rep Candy Udwin will be reinstated. Staff will be paid the living wage, which will also be uprated on basic pay in future years. Guarantees...

Workers in Barnet will strike on 7 October in an ongoing fight against privatisation. Social workers, coach escorts, drivers, occupational therapists, schools catering staff, education welfare officers, library workers, children centre workers, street cleaning and refuse workers will strike on 7 October as their services face outsourcing. These workers are some of the only ones left directly employed by Barnet council after mass privatisation, as the “easycouncil” aims to reduce its directly employed staff to less than 300. Barnet council has already privatised social care for adults with...

Workers facing outsourcing from London borough of Barnet council will strike on Wednesday 7 October. The dispute involves social workers, coach escorts, drivers, occupational therapists, schools catering staff, education welfare officers, library workers, children centre workers, street cleaning and refuse workers, all of whom face outsourcing under Barnet's “easycouncil” model which will see the number of directly employed staff fall to less than 300. Barnet's plans mean council budgets will be cut 40% by 2020. As well as the services already planned to be outsourced, Barnet announced last...

United Voices of the World (UVW) union continues its protests in support of sacked union members Barbara and Percy. Barbara and Percy were sacked from Sotheby’s auction house, where they worked as porters and cleaners, after they helped organise a protest to demand sick pay and for trade union rights. On Monday 7 September UVW organised a protest at a car auction Sotheby’s was holding in Battersea park. Two of the four UVW activists originally sacked by Sotheby’s have got their jobs back, but Sotheby’s continues to victimise Percy and Barbara. • Find out more here Gallery strikes continue...

On 4 September, workers striking against privatisation of services at the National Gallery handed in a petition signed by over 133,000 people. The delivery of the petition was timed to mark the 80th day of strikes at the gallery. Around a hundred people gathered outside the gallery on Trafalger Square to hand in the petition, which has garnered widespread support online. Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn and left-wing backbench MP John McDonnell both sent messages of support and solidarity to the protest. Gallery workers have been on indefinite strike since the start of August after...

Anti-privatisation campaigners and Unite the union in the London borough of Bromley are calling for a referendum on the planned privatisation of the learning disabilities service, due to be privatised on 1 October. Adult services staff, members of Unite, struck for 48 hours from 00.01 on Thursday 27 August. Their strike is part of ongoing strikes across council services facing privatisation. Library staff will strike for five days starting from 00.01 on 1 September, as the council goes ahead with its plans to privatise 14 of the borough's libraries. In a separate dispute in Bromley's already...

The long-running dispute over outsourcing at the National Gallery in London has escalated, with workers taking indefinite strike action. The bosses claim that pay and conditions will not be affected by this change, but workers are deeply sceptical. As one PCS member argued: “if privatisation will keep the same pay and conditions (at presumably the same cost as the Gallery is paying) then where is their profit going to come from?” Tellingly, outgoing Gallery director Nicholas Penny rounded off a letter to the Guardian with the hope that privatisation might see an end to the “frustration” of...

PCS members fighting privatisation at the National Gallery voted on 24 July for all-out strike from the start of August if the gallery does not back down. Workers have already struck for more than 50 days, as well as holding various stunts, parties and protests inside and outside the gallery. Workers will strike again on Wednesday 29 July and are holding an “alternative leaving party” for outgoing gallery director on Thursday 30 July. Sacked PCS rep Candy Udwin was due to have her appeal hearing with the gallery on 22 July, after being vindicated by a judge who said that a “tribunal would most...

Council workers in the London boroughs of Bromley and Barnet struck again on 7-9 July and 8 July respectively in ongoing fights against cuts and privatisations. Strikers from the two boroughs met up in Parliament Square at lunchtime on 8 July to protest at the budget announcement. In Bromley adult services and transport workers struck for two days on 7-8 July and library workers struck for three days from 7 July. Workers from across Barnet council’s services struck on 8 July and many workers at a depot which had previously been organised by the GMB (who have not called strikes) refused to...