GMB

General, Municipal and Boilermakers' Union

NHS "reject" campaign discusses plans

The NHS pay consultation ballots of the biggest health unions, RCN and Unison, are due to close on Friday 14 April. The Vote Reject campaign has delivered tens of thousands of leaflets across the country, and is bringing together workers from all the health unions to organise against the offer. Places where the campaign has a good levels of activism expect a strong No vote. However, in some areas many members will be untouched by the debate, and, without a convincing argument about how to win a better deal, may well be tempted by the unconsolidated “bribe” payment for 2022-23. RCN members, who...

Campaign for "no" vote in health

Consultation ballots on the derisory offer to NHS workers opened on 28 March 2023. The Vote Reject campaign has delivered tens of thousands of leaflets ( click here ) across the country, and is bringing together workers from all the health unions to organise against the offer. The campaign is starting to articulate ideas for an escalation of action alongside the BMA junior doctors if the offer is rejected. The petition for an Emergency General meeting of the RCN has been restarted, and emergency motions for Unison health conference (17-19 April) are circulating. It will be difficult to win a...

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 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

Health pay: break the pause!

The strikes over pay for Agenda for Change (i.e. most) NHS employees in England are paused for negotiation. After the RCN cancelled their strikes in England at the beginning of March to go into unilateral negotiations, Unison, GMB, CSP and then Unite called off their planned action to join too. The government preconditions for negotiations with these unions were: cancellation of strikes; any uplift for 2022-23 would be a one-off unconsolidated payment; the talks to cover 2023-24 pay and “efficiency” reforms; and any offer coming from the negotiations to be recommended by trade unions to their...

Prepare for the ballot in local government

Unison’s representatives on the local government National Joint Committee (NJC) that cover pay for local government and school support staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland — voted on Friday 10 March to reject the £1,925 flat rate offer from employers and go to an industrial action ballot. The ballot, which will be disaggregated by employer, is likely to run from 23 May to 4 July, and could see local government workers joining taking strike in the summer and autumn. The offer did not meet the claim for a 12.7% pay-rise for all workers, or come close to the starting salary of £15 per...

Reject the offer, rebuild local government unions

On 23 February, council employers offered a flat rate award of £1,925, or 3.88% for those on higher wages, from April 2023, for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland The claim from the unions (Unison, GMB and Unite) was for RPI + 2% (interpreted as 12.7%), a £15 per hour minimum wage in two years, pus extra leave and other improved conditions. The value of council workers’ pay has fallen by 25% in real terms since 2010, and the lowest grades have now almost been caught up by the government’s legal minimum wage of £10.42 (from April 2023). With this backdrop, it is not surprising that council...

NHS: escalate and coordinate

This report was written before the RCN called off its action. We have seen some important announcements in the ongoing NHS pay dispute. Re-ballots in Unison: from ten ballots run in England, Unison got a mandate for strike action in another nine trusts. Junior doctors vote to strike: A ballot by the British Medical Association, junior doctors went 98% for strikes, on a 77% turnout: they will strike for 72 hours in March. Junior doctors in the smaller Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association already voted for strikes in January (97% for, 75% turnout), and will be out on 15 March. The...

RCN staff row complicates nurses' dispute

Members of the GMB employed by the RCN as union staff are undergoing a consultative ballot over the latest pay offer from the union. The GMB put in a claim for 12.6%, but the RCN Executive has returned, after negotiations, with an offer far lower than that. Grades F and below (£23k to £48K, not including London weighting) are being offered 5.6%; the higher grades (paid between £60k and £138k, not including London weighting) between 4% and 2%. All grades are also offered an additional £1,200 unconsolidated payment. The RCN has a lot of staff, many of whom earn significantly more than the...

NHS: how to win on pay and rebuilding

In the week of 6 February, we have had the biggest strikes in the NHS dispute so far, with RCN members in 73 Trusts, GMB ambulance workers, physiotherapists and Unison ambulance workers all coming out. There are possibilities for escalation. Some Unison branches that did not reach the threshold are starting to push for reballoting, and the BMA strike ballot closes on 20 February. However, the RCN leadership has called off strike action in Wales to consult on a feeble offer. They also suspended strikes in Scotland for negotiations. The Welsh government has offered an additional 1.5% plus 1.5%...

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