Industrial News

Submitted by cathy n on 9 December, 2006 - 9:48

UCU conference slams leaders over pay deal

By Pete Radcliff, Derby University UCU secretary

ON Friday 24 November, the University and College Union's Higher Education sector conference passed verdict on the AUT and NATFHE leadership's handling of their abortive pay dispute earlier this year.

The advisory conference was the result of agitation against the shabby ending of the dispute, when the merged leadership of the new union called off the action for an offer only half a percent better than the employers' original offer.

Delegates passed ten motions, most of them highly critical. Edge Hill's motion said that the end of the dispute had resulted in "a complete undermining of UCU as a new organisation". It went on: "Embarrassingly, even Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, stated that he believed that UCU settled for less than what could have been achieved. Why then did UCU claim that the offer was the absolute best that could be achieved?" South Bank condemned the unions' negotiators for calling off the action with "indecent haste", resulting in a deal "that does little to rectify our long-standing grievance over academic pay".

The ending of the dispute was engineered primarily by the actions of senior AUT officers and in particular AUT general secretary Sally Hunt. The dispute had the inevitable problems that result from partial action, in this case a boycott of setting assessments by the AUT and a NATFHE boycott of marking assessments.

Despite this the action was strong in many areas and didn't warrant the calling off and a settlement which was neither a significant improvement on offers made earlier nor any serious catch-up on the loss of pay in the Higher Education sector over twenty years.

Salaries for HE teachers are now vulnerable to the employers' promotion of local bargaining and performance-related pay as they attempt to exploit frustration at the lack of significant pay increases over the next couple of years. Local bargaining is particularly serious as it dovetails very conveniently with student top-up fees, including the raising of the fees cap in three years‚ time.

The conference also called for further democratic HE sector conferences to decide on any future settlements and a campaign against the threat of local bargaining.

The challenge now is to make those recommendations into enforceable decisions and build a real and vibrant campaign around them.

That is why Workers' Liberty members in UCU are supporting Roger Kline in the union's first general secretary election. Kline has been consistently critical of the pay deal, while its main architect Sally Hunt is the candidate of the right in UCU.

Support strike action in Blood Service
BALLOTING is underway for strike action in NHS Blood and Transplant Authority. It follows plans to "consolidate" work from 14 centres into three over the next few years. That puts at risk centres in Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Plymouth, Southampton, Tooting, Colindale, Brentwood, Oxford and Cambridge. It threatens the loss of hundreds of highly skilled technical and scientific staff from the NHS and leaves major cities without facilities for the testing and processing of blood.

Amicus, the organising union, has already conducted a consultative ballot showing that 81% of its members working at the centres are in favour of industrial action. They say the cuts are being made without meaningful consultation with either the unions or local communities and, despite protests, plans have already been announced that the existing centres are to
be replaced with new super centres in Bristol and unnamed locations in the south east and north.

If the ballot is successful action is likely over the Christmas period. Local trade union activists and Keep Our NHS Public groups should seek to support and promote this action as another important fight in the battle to save the NHS.

Defend Yunus Baksh
THE suspension of Yunus Baksh, a well known health activist in the North East, has been continued despite a growing campaign in his defence. Initially suspended in September from his job as a health worker following an anonymous complaint this case is one of a growing number against trade unionists who fight against cuts.

Yunus is the joint branch secretary of Unison North of Tyne health branch and sits on the union 's health service group executive. Trade union branches are asked to pass motions in support and send complaints about Yunus' treatment and to demand his reinstatement to Alan Hall, the Chief Executive, Northumberland,Tyne and Wear Trust. E-mail alan.hall@nmht.nhs.uk

John Leach elected RMT president
JOHN Leach has decisively won the election to be National President of the RMT for the next three years. The AWL thought John was the best candidate in this election.

John Leach has a commitment to rank-and-file members and to fighting the employers. His record includes leading unofficial action in defiance of the anti-union laws. He has also stood up to the union bureaucracy.

TGWU-Amicus merger pushes ahead
A SPECIAL conference of the TGWU on 19 December will discuss and vote on a merger with Amicus. (At an earlier stage in this plan to create a "super-union" the GMB dropped out.) The plans will almost certainly be endorsed by the conference. They will then be put to a ballot of members in January-February 2007.

In reality there has been very little consultation on the plans up to now in either of the unions.

Solidarity supported the merger - in principle - because we said it would create a single union for most of manufacturing and would unite workers. We also proposed a number of democratic reforms for the new union. Some of these questions have been answered, but many remain unanswered.

A full assessment will be printed in the next issue of Solidarity.

Acadamies conference
By Justin Baidoo

The Anti-Academies Alliance Conference was held at the Institute of Education on Saturday 25 November. Over 200 teachers, headteachers and young people attended the event to discuss the ongoing and escalating fight against the recently voted Education and Inspections Bill which allows private institutions to run state funded schools. The flagship policy is encapsulated by the City Academy, which allows wealthy backers to set the ethos and "adapt" the National Curriculum to their prejudices.

There are currently 28 academies and the government has earmarked 200 to be built within the next 3 years. Despite this rapid "reform" there is an equally rapid growing organisation of teachers, educationalists and parents preparing a concerted fightback.

The conference heard about inspiring local campaigns and developed plans for a fightback.

Metroline pay fight continues
By Robin Sivapalan

METROLINE drivers in north west London will strike again over pay on Monday 11 December, after stormy meetings between the T&G and management came to nothing. The company's negotiation policy has always been to repackage various offers, giving with one hand and taking with the other, so that one group of drivers will feel badly affected while others might be tempted to settle.

For the last seven years this policy has worked, averting strike action, but this year things are different. Despite the appalling cancellation of the planned third strike day on 20 November in order to ballot, and despite the union's failure to recommend a "no" vote, drivers have voted to throw out Metroline's latest insulting offer. This would have meant an increased basic wage, but most workers losing out overall through the abolition of time-and-a-quarter for overtime.

Metroline are showing their true colours - more and more victimisations and intimidations, and they are now threatening an injunction against the T&G. All this makes it more important than ever that rank-and-file drivers regain control of the dispute.

In the first place, Thursday night strike meetings at the Cricklewood Railway Club need to be resumed. There also needs to be mass meetings in all garages to elect a strike committee to assist the negotiating team by considering all new company proposals before a new ballot is considered. The relaunch of a rank-and-file bus workers' bulletin is also an element being considered, and the AWL is ready to help in its production.

Lastly, there is an urgent need for better coordination of drivers in different companies. With the possibility of action on First, Arriva and East London buses, Metroline workers should take the lead in linking up London-wide action for a real living wage.

NHS: national campaign still needed
By Mike Fenwick

AFTER a year-long assault on the NHS the government is starting to feel the force of the opposition to their reform programme. Patricia Hewitt is now trying to get senior clinicians to speak up in defence of the reforms. A loss of government credibility is not surprising when ministers continue to deny the reality of closures, job cuts and creeping privatisation by hiding behind dodgy statistics and the cynical doublespeak of "increasing patient choice". In that world there have only been 900 job losses and the 19,000 posts that have been lost in recruitment freezes, through "natural wastage' etc do not appear in the figures. Patient choice means giving the patient the option of a private sector Treatment Centre, but to still pay for that operation if no-one turns up! This, at same time as they penalise NHS Hospitals for doing "too much" work.

With the growing threat of lost seats in next year's local elections New Labour have become more guarded about their policy. Both Lib Dems and Tories are talking about standing on "defend the NHS" platforms.

But there will be no let up in the cuts. Even during the holiday period Trust Boards will meet to make cuts in the hope that these can be passed under the cover of the jolly festivities.

There is still the need for a national campaign to pull together local NHS campaigns. A start was made last weekend with a meeting called by People United Saving Hospitals (PUSH) in Nuneaton. There were about 50 people in attendance representing 15 community campaigns. Plans were made for a series of coordinated local activities on 15 December which will range from torchlit vigils to carol concerts in support of the NHS. They also called for a national demonstration in London on 3 March.

Clearly frustrated at the lack of action from the trade unions the feeling was that by PUSH setting a date this would force NHS Together (the joint union campaign) to act. Unfortunately there is a potential trap here if the unions do not respond. The unions could fix another date later in the month in an attempt to isolate PUSH. The Nuneaton meeting was limited in time and could not discuss a strategy on how to relate to other campaigns but there seemed to be an agreement to follow the unions if they were to offer a lead.

This again illustrates the difference in tempo between the community based and trade union campaigns. The opportunity to draw the two together is offered by a conference called by Keep Our NHS Public on 20 January next year. This should be a priority for all activists and a chance to create a united, national campaign that draws on the experience and resources of all to achieve the focus and force required to stop and reverse the government's plans.

That unity would be welcome but socialists also need to put pressure on the unions through the development of rank and file union campaigns. On a local and national level, parallel to community campaigns, they can act together independently of the bureaucracy to pursue the strategy of industrial action. In the first place this could consist of a national "work to rule" exposing the reality of staff shortages and cuts.

It would also be a platform from which to promote John McDonell's campaign in the Labour Party. Opposition to privatisation should find political form in the fight to renew the labour movement, not in disillusion and votes for
opportunistic Tories and Liberals.

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