Privatisation

Cleaners, porters and catering staff at Whipps Cross, Royal London and Bart’s Hospitals are entering their second week of strike against their employer Serco. The strike (since 31 January) has been strong, with picket lines of up to 145 strong at the Royal London and 75 at Whipps Cross. Two large demonstrations have been held, with labour movement supporters joining the pickets. The Bart’s Unite branch is confident the strike will stay strong for the remainder of its planned two weeks. It demands a 15% pay rise and an end to the two-tier pay system for those employed by the NHS and those on...

Cleaners, porters and ward catering workers in the country’s biggest NHS trust will strike for two weeks from 31 January to 13 February over pay and inequality. These workers’ jobs are contracted out to Serco across the five hospitals in the Bart’s NHS Trust. Pay and conditions for many workers fall below the NHS agreement “Agenda for Change”, but they are also striking to demand at 15% pay increase. The strike follows a yearlong organising drive by Unite amongst Serco staff, that has recruited over 250 new members to date. This helped to get the ballot for strike action over the 50% turnout...

A strike by outsourced security guards at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in central London, due to begin on 19 January, was postponed. The workers are fighting for parity with NHS terms and conditions on issues like sick pay, holiday entitlement, and pensions. Their union, United Voices of the World, tweeted: “The guards have made the good faith decision [to postpone their strike] following last minute news that the GOSH board of Trustees are preparing a package of improvements to their terms and conditions. The guards are clear that if these improvements are not presented within the next...

Outsourced workers, including cleaners, porters, security guards, caterers, and others, working in Barts Health NHS Trust in London will strike from 31 January to 13 February. The strikes will involve workers at St. Barts’, Royal London, and Whipps Cross hospitals. The workers, who are employed by outsourcing giant Serco, are demanding a decent pay rise, after their employer offered 3%, well below current rates of inflation. Serco Group PLC has an annual turnover of nearly £4 billion. A Unite statement said: “These workers face the same risks as NHS-employed staff but they are paid...

With the withdrawal of Covid restrictions in England, there is increasing rhetoric about an employers’ drive to get workers back into offices. It’s not entirely clear as yet how that will play out across the civil service and whether departments will be setting quotas for the number of workers they want back. We’re meeting the Cabinet Office on Tuesday 25 January to discuss this. The Daily Mail is already promoting a narrative that union opposition to workers being forced back into offices is somehow sabotaging the country’s recovery. It’s clear that the Prime Minister is looking, using those...

In mid-February, the union will begin a consultative ballot of our entire public sector membership as to whether they are willing to take industrial action. This will be wider than the UK civil service and will include members in non-civil-service public sector employers where PCS also organises. The campaign we’re launching is about the cost of living crisis now facing us. In a sense, there is a defensive or reactive element of the potential dispute, in that we’re responding to rising living costs. But there are several offensive elements too. Firstly, we’re demanding that the pay system is...

Security guards at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital will strike for six weeks from 18 January, demanding equality of pay and conditions with directly-employed workmates on NHS contracts. The strike is set to be one of the longest in NHS history. Erica Rasheed, a security guard and activist in the United Voices of the World (UVW) union, said: “In seven months, I will give birth to my second child at an NHS hospital, and like many women across the country, I will marvel at this wonderful service which I’m proud to be part of delivering. “But it will be a bittersweet moment, because I won’t...

Our union’s (PCS) National Executive Committee met on 9 December, and agreed to conduct a consultative ballot of our entire civil service membership for industrial action over pay and pensions. This is wrapped up into our Cost of Living campaign. The ballot will cover the UK Civil Service and those of Scotland and Wales. The same NEC agreed our pay claim for next year. Those demands will include such things as the levelling-up of pay rates for all our members. As part of the campaign we are also demanding a decrease in employer contributions to the pension schemes. We know from the government...

A number of countries, including the US and France, are seeing waves or flurries of strikes as workers try to gain or make up ground as economies revive after lockdowns. Here, pay in the private sector is rising but inflation is rising faster, with the left-Blairite Resolution Foundation noting that "real wages are already falling and are likely to continue to do so for the next six months”. In the public sector the government is seeking to impose even more real-terms cuts after more than a decade of huge cumulative losses. There is a wave of attacks on pay, terms and conditions as bosses try...

On Tuesday 23 November, the day before 27 people drowned in the English Channel trying to reach the UK, Priti Patel announced the official opening of Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in County Durham, a new women-only facility intended to replace the notorious Yarl's Wood detention centre near Bedford. The new facility in Medomsley, near the town of Consett, was formerly Medomsley Detention Centre (for boys) and was the site of historic abuse carried out over decades before closing in 1988. Five former officers have already been jailed for their part in the abuse with many more...