Privatisation

Industrial news in brief

In March, the University of Manchester announced plans to restructure its subsidiary company, UMC, making 46 redundancies in catering while moving the remaining staff on to “term-time only” contracts. This latter move would have meant cuts of about one third to their total pay. But now, as a result of solid negotiating by Unison, and agitation, occupations and disruption by students, management have backed down. There will be no compulsory redundancies, no loss of hours and no pay cuts. These victories in the fight against the university’s contemptuous treatment of its workers should embolden...

Industrial news in brief

CCTV workers employed by Glasgow Community Safety – a Glasgow City Council Arms Length External Organisation (ALEO) – are back at work having won a 24% pay rise after twelve strike days over six weeks. The 19 workers, all Unison members, struck to achieve equal pay, i.e. parity of shift allowance payments, with other employees who work the same pattern of 12 hour shifts in a round-the-clock service. A campaign by Glasgow school janitors, also Unison members, in primary, nursery and Additional Support for Learning schools continues, with another three-day strike in late April following on from...

Industrial news in brief

Thursday 14 April was the third annual #FastFoodGlobal day Of action. Workers in fast food, coffee shops and cafes across the world took part in rallies, stunts, marches and other creative actions for higher pay, better conditions and the right of unions to organise. The Fast Food Rights blog reports that actions took place in over 40 countries, including France, Japan, Argentina, and the UK, with fast food strikes happening in 300 cities across the US. At many protests workers carried signs in different languages, with strikers in the US organising solidarity pictures with French fast food...

Industrial news in brief

On 21 March cleaning and catering workers employed by multinational corporation Aramark at the South London and Maudsley NHS mental health trust, which has sites across South London, struck for a £10 an hour minimum wage, full sick pay and proper unsocial hours payments. Colin Little, the GMB rep at the Ladywell Unit at Lewisham Hospital, which is part of SLaM, spoke to Solidarity : “We all work for Aramark. We’ve come out together to fight for £10 an hour, for fairer wages. We’re not getting fair wages or sick pay. These guys work very hard, all of us work very hard, as a team, supporting...

Fight job and wage cuts at Manchester University

Forty-three job cuts have been announced at UMC Limited, the subsidiary wholly owned by the University of Manchester which provides all the catering and food on campus. This company is an outsourcing venture used by the University to employ catering staff on zero-hours contracts, free of any of the protections of in-house employment. The University raked in a cool £46 million in profit last year, yet now 60 out of UMC’s 283 staff have been informed that their jobs are at risk. As we saw last term in IT, management are trying to force these cuts through under the guise of “voluntary” severance...

Support the junior doctors, save the NHS!

Aislinn Macklin-Doherty, an NHS doctor and BMA rep, spoke to Solidarity . It would be fair to say that before this past year I was essentially a campaigning novice. I had strong political opinions. I remember being on my father’s shoulders at marches against Maggie Thatcher’s public sector cuts. I marched against the Iraq war. I signed petitions and attended occasional protests about NHS privatisation. But, like many in the UK, I didn’t feel really connected to a wider voice or a movement. I certainly did not feel represented by any of the mainstream political parties. Over the last year three...

Junior doctors set for a long battle

On 9-11 March thousands of junior doctors will take to the picket lines again. The first of three 48 hour periods of "emergency care only" provision marks a serious turning point in the dispute. The stakes are high. The government has been clear it plans to impose this contract regardless of complaints from doctors, dismay from hospital trusts, and objections from general public opinion. This is no longer just about junior doctors. In truth it never has been. From the beginning the government has failed to distinguish between this contractual dispute and wider NHS issues. Using false...

Industrial news in brief

Teachers at Small Heath School in Birmingham have won significant successes in their campaign against academy status and in defence of the suspended NUT rep, Simon O’Hara. In fact they appear to have defeated the academy proposal entirely and can now focus on lifting Simon’s suspension. On 28 January school unions the NUT, ATL and NASUWT received a letter from Birmingham City council informing them that the proposed academy sponsor, The King Edward Foundation “has confirmed in writing …that the Foundation is not in a position to take on sponsorship of Small Heath School”. The letter went on to...

Flogging off the last of the family silver

Most of us mere mortals only have to deal with the Land Registry on the rare occasion we are buying or selling a house (and given current house prices we can dream on). But supposing you have a house and for whatever reason you needed to find who owns the land your house stands on, or the open land, wasteland or coppice at the back of your house? Easy (or rather, c’est facile). You go to the local Mayor’s office and he or she will get out a huge book of maps which show all the land ownership (its fancy name is a cadastre) in your local area. Even better — you won’t be charged for this, the...

Make Labour reinstate the NHS!

This month student nurses and junior doctors are taking up the fight to save the National Health Service. At the end of the month, on 30 January, a “Health Campaigns Together” conference, backed by the Unite and Unison trade unions, meets in London. The campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill drafted by Allyson Pollock has been boosted by the Corbyn surge in the Labour Party, with a regular page on the campaign’s website now reporting on support from local Labour Parties. One issue is funds. The Tories say they aren’t cutting the NHS, but they are. They cover up by claiming that the missing...

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