Unite

Honesty on pay offers

Following the threat of strikes, Unite the Union recently announced a 19% pay deal for American Airlines maintenance technicians and crew chiefs at Heathrow. 19% is the headline on its website and summary for the media and social media. The facts, according to the union itself, are that company offered a three-year deal of 5.3% in year one, followed by a one-off payment, followed by a pay freeze. This was pushed up to 7% (backdated to January), 6% and 6%. The workers have now voted to accept the deal. We’re not well placed to comment about whether that was the right call or not. The new offer...

Liverpool dockers out again from 24 October

The Liverpool dockers’ pay dispute, demanding both an immediate pay rise and a comprehensive pay review, has escalated into a fight over jobs. Peel Ports, the container terminal operator, has refused to budge on pay, and has instead threatened redundancies (though the terminals are expanding). The workers, members of the Unite union, are currently back at work for a week, then striking again from 24 October to 7 November. In an online meeting on 17 October, there was a wide ranging discussion of campaigning to support the dockers in the weeks ahead, with plans for a public meeting, a...

Liverpool dockers strike again

Liverpool dockers are striking again from 11 to 17 October, and will strike yet again for two weeks from 25 October unless they get a settlement with the employer, Peel Ports, on wages and jobs. Talks with the employers, Peel Ports, at Liverpool docks in the week 3-7 October, when the dockers had returned to work, produced no movement on the dockers’ demand for a pay rise and a comprehensive pay review. On the contrary: Peel Ports responded by threatening 132 redundancies, and are now refusing to meet the union again. The union, Unite, called this response “desperate”. Work in the port has...

Unite members reject TfL pay offer

Unite members working for TfL have rejected the company's insulting pay offer, by 92 per cent to eight per cent. RMT members had also previously rejected the offer. Unite is demanding an 8.4 per cent increase for 2022, and plans to move to a new industrial action ballot.

Unite's members at TfL work...

"Unite for a Workers' Economy"

More commentary on Unite's approach to politics here and here . A protest called by Unite the Union as part of its “Unite for a Workers' Economy” campaign drew around 200 people outside the Scottish Power offices in Glasgow on the last Friday in September. Protesting about rocketing energy prices is better than not protesting. And had it not been for the torrential rain, the turnout would probably have been higher. But the “Unite for a Workers' Economy” effort is not a good start on the broader working-class campaign that we need to support, augment, spread, and build on the current strike...

Labour Party conference: how Unite helped Starmer

Part of the striking Liverpool dockers' protest outside Labour conference 2022. Bizarrely, the Unite delegation to the conference did not visit the dockers, even when they came to the conference centre Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has rightly criticised Keir Starmer’s record and politics. But the approach advocated by her and many around her in the union is politically passive and conservative , using Starmer and the Labour Party’s failings as a justification for political disengagement and inactivity instead of struggle. Unite’s performance at the 2022 Labour Party conference (24-28...

Liverpool dockers determined to win

Liverpool dockers are back at work on 3 October after a two-week strike for pay, but will be out again for a week from 11 October if they don’t have a settlement by then, and then every other week, indefinitely. The operator, Peel Ports, stonewalled at first, but has now agreed to talks, to start 4 October. Union organisation in the port has been rebuilt by patient effort since the defeat of the epic Liverpool dockers’ strike of 1995-8. Meanwhile, the port has been expanded, to become again one of the busiest in Britain, and the workforce has increased. Pay remains low by international port...

Good results so far in NHS

Results in the health unions’ consultations over pay have, so far, been positive. The Royal College of Midwives voted 75% yes, on a 66% turnout. In Scotland threshold targets were also met in consultations with good majorities for industrial action: RCN 90%, Unison 91%, GMB 97% and Unite 89%. A further year of pay cuts, the increased NHS crisis, and the context of strike action in other sectors is making a significant difference to voting numbers this year. Consultations for Unite and GMB (England) will be complete by the end of this month, 11 September and 27 September respectively. Formal...

Scottish local government: strikes can win more!

Local government workers in Scotland should reject the new offer and restart the strikes. Workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland should join them. The last two weeks’ coordinated and targeted strikes by the three local government unions in Scotland (Unison, GMB and Unite) have pushed up the offer from 2% before action was discussed, to 3.5%, then to 5%, then to a differentiated flat-rate offer (but not consolidated), and now to a new offer, consolidated. Targeted strikes of bin and recycling workers rolled out beyond Edinburgh to two thirds of the councils, and the unions planned for...

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