Pay, hours, conditions

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Support Lambeth College!

Teaching staff at Lambeth College are on all-out strike. The workers are fighting new contracts that attack pay and conditions, which would affect all new workers and create a two-tier workforce at the college. The changes include: • An increase in working hours, and a lower hourly rate of pay. • Reduced holiday. • An attack on sick pay entitlement for those on long term sick leave. This is the fourth week of all out indefinite action for UCU members at the college. Unison members joined the UCU on strike for the second time on 24-26 Jun. The UCU have agreed £50 per day strike pay for their...

Build for 10 July strike!

Members of the public sector union Unison have voted by a 59% majority to strike on 10 July against a 1% pay offer and for a rise of at least £1 an hour. In the week preceding the announcement of Unison’s ballot result, the National Union of Teachers confirmed it would join a 10 July strike. Strike ballot results from Unite, GMB, and the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) (all over public sector pay) are yet to be announced, and the Fire Brigades Union has a live ballot that will allow it to participate in a 10 July strike. Transport for London staff (employed in central TfL...

Ritzy Living Wage campaign: “unleashing passion and creativity”

From the 2014 dispute. For the 2016-17 dispute, see here and here . -- A socialist who works at the Ritzy Picturehouse cinema in Brixton, South London spoke to Solidarity about the Ritzy workers' Living Wage struggle (in a personal capacity). What's the nature of the workforce at the Ritzy? Almost everyone is part-time; a lot have other jobs or projects they're working on. Some people have been there as long as 15 years, and then it's a huge range downwards. A lot of us haven't been there very long: me less than a year. But compared to many workplaces the Ritzy is an okay place to work, so...

Industrial news in brief

Tube cleaners in the RMT union have faced a lock-out as managers sent them home for refusing to use “biometric booking-on” machines. The machines are intended to replace the existing system of booking on by signing in with station supervisors, and by phone. They require cleaners to enter a fingerprint. The RMT has raised concerns about the use of the machines to collect data on cleaners, many of whom are migrant workers, as well as their possible use as a further pretext for reducing station staffing levels. A ballot of RMT cleaner members working for ISS returned a large majority in favour of...

End the pay freeze! Build 10 July public sector strike

Senior bosses in the NHS have enjoyed an average pay rise of 6.1% over the last two years. Some have also received bonuses of up to £40,000, more than double the annual salary of many frontline NHS staff. A Daily Mirror study showed the overall increase in non-basic pay (bonuses, overtime, and other perks) for senior NHS staff in 2013 was 36%. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has refused to follow the advice of the NHS Pay Review Body and give frontline workers a pay increase. The Review Body was recommending just one per cent. Even that was too much for a government committed to...

Industrial news in brief

The Hands Off London Transport (HOLT) campaign, a coalition involving the RMT union, Disabled People Against Cuts activists, student unionists, pensioner activists, and others, plans a Day of Action against Tube cuts on Friday 13 June. Activists will organising leafleting, demonstrations, and other actions outside local Tube stations including King’s Cross, Walthamstow Central, Leytonstone, Elephant & Castle, and Brixton, to highlight the damaging impact Boris Johnson and London Underground bosses’ cuts plans will have on passengers as well as Tube staff. Two weeks later, HOLT will join the...

Make 10 July the start, not the end

More than one million public sector workers could strike on Thursday 10 July. Workers across local government, education, the civil service, the fire service, and other public sector workplaces and industries are likely to launch coordinated strikes over pay. Some unions, like the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), have live ballots from ongoing sectoral disputes which will allow them to strike on 10 July. The PCS is currently consulting its members over participation in a mass strike. Transport for London...

Boycott Picturehouse!

Cinema workers’ union BECTU has called for a national boycott of Picturehouse Cinemas until they agree a pay deal with workers at The Ritzy in Brixton, South London who are striking to win the London Living Wage. Picturehouse Cinema bosses pulled out of talks with BECTU and unilaterally imposed a 4% pay deal, which still leaves almost all staff paid below the poverty line. Ritzy workers’ sixth strike, on Saturday 7 June, saw solidarity actions at Picturehouse Cinemas elsewhere in London. Actor, documentary maker, and one-time footballer Eric Cantona joined the Brixton Ritzy workers as they...

Unison to discuss pay fight

The Local Government sector conference of public sector Unison takes place on 15-16 June in Brighton, with the union’s National Delegate Conference immediately following from Tuesday 17 June to Friday 20 June. Workers’ Liberty members and supporters will be in attendance as delegates and observers, distributing our bulletins and fighting for greater democracy and more focused industrial militancy across the union. The conference gives delegates an opportunity to discuss strategy for the ongoing pay fights in Local Government and Health. In Local Government, Workers’ Liberty members will argue...

Ritzy workers call for boycott

Workers at The Ritzy, the Picturehouse Cinema in Brixton, South London, have been striking over the company's refusal to pay staff the London Living Wage. The company likes to portray itself as progressive and radical, nurturing independent talent and the arts — yet nothing could be further from the truth. Picturehouses sold to Cineworld in 2012, netting Managing Director Lyn Goleby £9 million, and the group made £31 million in profits. Yet they say they cannot afford to pay a living wage to their staff. This week, the company declared war on workers at The Ritzy by pulling out of peace talks...

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