Local Councils

Local councils and local services

Southampton battle enters third month

The dispute dubbed “the UK’s Wisconsin” has entered its third month as Southampton local government workers extended their strike against mass redundancies and pay cuts. Workers including parking attendants, toll collectors and port workers began a week-long stoppage on Monday 11 July as the council’s deadline for accepting the new terms came and went. While most workers have accepted the new contracts, those who haven’t have not yet been sacked. The industrial action’s focus has now shifted from demanding the council withdraws the threat of mass sackings onto straightforwardly demanding the...

Stop the local government fire sale!

A new government White Paper proposes to allow almost all public services to be opened up to competition from the private and voluntary sector. Vicki Morris reports on the reality of the Tory council in Barnet, north London. Barnet council is inviting bidders for a contract worth £275 million over 10 years. The successful bidder will take over the council’s regulatory and development functions which includes things such as planning, environmental health and transport. This is only the first of a number of big contracts worth more than £1 billion over the next 10 years. The Tory administration...

Southampton workers press onwards

Southampton council workers’ strike movement continues after talks with ACAS broke down in late June. Tuesday 28 June will see street cleaners, parking staff, refuse collectors, librarians and others take renewed strike action in a dispute that involves over 2,000 workers — members of Unison and Unite. Over 4,000 workers face redundancy on 11 July if they refuse to sign up to the Tory council’s new terms, which will means significant pay cuts of between two and five percent, as well as other attacks. The tactic of imposing new conditions by threatening, or actually carrying out, mass...

Southampton council workers fight to win

In a dispute which even sections of the mainstream press have described as “the UK’s Wisconsin”, local government workers in Southampton have been battering a cuts-happy Tory council with a programme of indefinite rolling strike action. Its creative strategies and levels of rank-and-file control over the dispute make it almost unique in recent UK labour movement history, an inspiring and significant departure from the usual one-day token efforts called from above by union leaderships. Mike Tucker, the branch secretary of Southampton District Unison, spoke to Solidarity in advance of the next...

Doncaster council workers to join strike

Union activists expect “the vast majority” of schools in Doncaster to close, as council employees in the public sector union Unison prepare to strike alongside teachers on 30 June. Unison is striking against budget cuts and job losses at the council and could take further action later in the summer. Unison branch secretary Jim Board said ““It is a one day strike, and there will be widespread disruption to council services across the board. We will be looking at possible further action throughout the summer, as we have authorisation for continuous and escalating industrial action.” Doncaster’s...

Councils join June 30 strike

Council workers in Birmingham and Doncaster could join the mass public sector strike action on 30 June, as public sector union Unison announced ballots that could see 15,000 workers take strike action. Birmingham city council, Europe’s largest local authority, the city’s biggest single employer and the largest local authority employer in the UK, is planning to make £300 million cuts by 2015, including the axing of 7,000 jobs — nearly 40% of the total workforce. The council is also outsourcing 100 ICT and call centre jobs to India, as part of a joint venture with private firm Capita. The cuts...

Southampton strikes at "crucial stage"

Monday June 13 will see a high point in ongoing anti-cuts strikes at Southampton City Council. On that day five sections involved in the rolling action will overlap for a day of coordinated strikes involving street cleaners, parking wardens, refuse collectors, bridge toll collectors and 250 hospital cleaners working for contractor Medirest at Southampton General. A joint Unison/Unite march is being held on June 13, starting at 12:30pm at Hoglands Park and marching to the Civic Centre. Other sections of local authority workers, such as workers in Children’s Social Care, are also maintaining...

Southampton council workers begin indefinite strikes

On 23 May local government workers employed by Southampton City Council began indefinite rolling strike action in a dispute with the council over pay cuts. The dispute involves both Unison and Unite and will see a different section of council workers taking strike action each week. On 31 May, Council Enforcement Officers, Parking Equipment Technicians and Cashier Driver/Collectors began seven days of strike action. Mike Tucker, the branch secretary of Southampton District Unison, spoke to Solidarity. This dispute is about wages of council workers being cut by the Tory-controlled council. They...

Tower Hamlets cuts speed up

Tower Hamlets council in east London is planning on privatising its resources department, meaning that 800 workers will be transferred out of council employment and become employees of a private company. The attack comes in the context of a rapidly accelerating pace of cuts across the borough; the council is also planning to devolve the payment of severance packages down to individual schools, meaning that if a given school feels itself unable to pay out then it will have the power not to do so. Some schools have also started transferring out the employment of their cleaning staff to tin-pot...

The Monthly Survey - March 1995

Click here to download article as pdf . - "Strong moves to a united Ireland" by John O'Mahony - "School cuts spark nationwide fightback" by Colin Foster - "The lesson of the animal rights protests: if the law is wrong, disobey it!" by Wayne Nicholls - "Mandela's government attacks the working class" by Bobby Navarro - "The fight for Clause Four" by Gerry Bates - "Rail union backs Clause Four" by Alan Pottage (RMT National Executive, Scottish Area) - "The diary of a Clause Four activist" by Roland Trechet

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