Public sector pay battle 2007-8

In the ballot for strike action on pay by the National Union of Teachers, which closed on 3 November, 51.7% voted yes, on a turnout of 29.7%. The NUT Executive on 5 November decided to call no action. After the well-supported strike on 24 April, Workers' Liberty teachers argued for a strategy of ongoing discontinuous action, to build on members' mobilisation and bridge the gap until another all-out strike this term. This was rejected by the "left" majority on the NUT Executive, with the result of seven months of... nothing. In this situation, the initiative was quickly lost and members allowed...

The PCS civil service union has called a strike for 10 November, and the teachers’ union NUT will announce the result of its strike ballot on 3 November. Both unions are in dispute with the Government over pay, demanding pay rises at least matching inflation rather than the Government’s limit of two-and-a-bit per cent. PCS’s call to action for 10 November is muffled and apologetic. Headlines: “PCS calls on government to avoid national strike. PCS calls on government to come to negotiating table to avoid damaging industrial action over pay. National executive committee sets 10 November as day...

On 20th August and 24th September local authorities throughout Scotland were shut down by 24-hour strikes jointly staged by UNISON, UNITE and the GMB. In some parts of Scotland support for the second day of strike action, and the numbers turning out for picketing, were higher on the second day of strike action than on the first. The strikes had been triggered by an offer of a three-year pay deal from the local authority employers (COSLA) amounting to just 2.5% a year for the next three years. This was subsequently increased to an offer of a one-year deal of 2.5%. At a time when the official...

If anything sums up New Labour as a Government for the rich, a cuckoo in the labour movement nest, it has to be their year-on-year drive to keep public sector wages below the rate of inflation. According to a report on the Joseph Rowntree website, and based on 2007 statistics, “the public sector is a large employer of workers earning less than £7 per hour, accounting for a quarter of all such employees... the public sector employs relatively few adults of the age group where low pay is most prevalent, namely those under the age of 25. If this age group is excluded then the share of low paid...

Unbelievably, it looks as if the pay strikes by civil servants (PCS) and teachers (NUT) in November could be on different days. The NUT's ballot begins on 6 October, and the PCS's on 24 September. Under the current laws, a ballot mandate for industrial action has to be activated within 28 days, or it lapses; at the same time, however, there's a minimum time (notice to the employer, and so on) between a union getting a ballot mandate and organising a strike. The current word is that the NUT's strike will be between 19 and 27 November (and legally cannot be earlier than the 19th); the PCS's...

The two day strike by hundreds of thousands of local government workers [on 16/17 July 2008] has demonstrated that there is a real mood to defeat the government’s imposed pay cut. The two days saw some wonderful examples of the power workers have — closing many facilities, council offices and schools. In many places strong picket lines effectively stopped other workers, particularly GMB members, going to work and further heightened the impact of the action. Public support was generally in evidence as other workers recognise pay as a general issue and gave their support to some of the lowest...

The National Union of Teachers Executive met on 17 July and unanimously agreed a timetable for a ballot on discontinuous strike action as the next steps in the pay campaign. The ballot will start on Monday October 6th. Campaigning materials are being produced over the holiday and the strategy will be confirmed at a special executive on Friday 5 September. The battle over public sector pay seems likely to intensify rather than ease off in the months ahead. The Retail Price Index (RPI) reached 4.6% in June and even the government’s preferred measure, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), hit 3.8%...

The 16th and 17th of July was the first time I have ever been on strike and I picketed outside the council building where I work with a couple of other workers. My workplace has very few workers in a union and an even smaller number in Unison. So it was not surprising that lots of people crossed the picket line. Many of them said that they couldn’t afford to lose two day’s pay or that they were in the GMB. A few agency workers were visibly upset about having to cross a picket line, but said that they would not be called to work there again if they missed two working days. Many of my colleagues...

As we go to press (20 August 2008) a 24-hour strike action by local government workers, members of UNISON, UNITE, and the GMB is taking place. The same day PCS members employed by the Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland, are staging a follow-up 24-hour strike. Both strikes are about below-inflation pay offers for workers in the public sector. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has offered local authority workers a three-year pay-deal, with pay going up by just 2.5% each year. Scottish Ministers have offered for Scottish government employees just 2%. These pay offers...

20th August sees a 24-hour strike action by members of UNISON, UNITE, and the GMB. The same day PCS members employed by the Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland, will be staging a 24-hour strike, following on from a previous one-day strike on 31 July. Both strikes are about the same issue: below-inflation pay offers for workers in the public sector. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities – the employers’ side, with one representative from each of Scotland’s local authorities – has offered local authority workers a three-year pay-deal, with pay going up by just 2.5% each year...