Public sector pay battle 2007-8

The campaign against Gordon Brown's 2%% pay limit for public sector workers

Postal workers’ deal: vote NO!

The ballot on whether postal workers will accept the deal brokered between the Communication Workers’ Union and Royal Mail closes on 27 November. Despite the difficulty of restarting action after such a prolonged lull, and the heavy pressure in favour of the deal from both the union leadership and management, CWU activists say the ballot could be close. Activists met last month and launched a “CWU Rank and File” group to campaign against the deal and create the embryo of a rank-and-file network on the post — something that has been sorely missing over the years, with militancy not matched by...

Royal Mail: Vote No

Dave Warren is a member of the Postal Executive of the post and telecom union CWU. He opposed the deal with Royal Mail endorsed by a majority of the Executive on 22 October, and has been campaigning for a no vote in the ballot on the deal which runs between 9 and 27 November. He spoke to Solidarity. So far about 20 CWU branches have taken a position to oppose the deal. Flexibility is a very big issue for many members. If it were a straight pay deal, there would not be the same opposition. The pay deal is a 5.4% increase from October; £175 to cover the period from April (where the pay deal was...

Unison: Yes vote but no strike

The public service union Unison's ballot of its members in local government for action to improve their 2.475% pay offer produced a small majority for action, but the union's Local Government Executive, meeting on 29 October, decided by a large majority to accept the offer and not to call action. According to Unison's official announcement: “The ballot closed last Friday, 26 October, and saw 144,719 valid ballot papers returned, with 74,631 members (or 51.6%) voting for action and 70,088 (48.4%) voting against. The committee... overwhelmingly voted for a statement which read: However, in all...

Unison 1500 at Birmingham Rally

On Tuesday 6 November 1,500 council workers demonstrated outside Birmingham town hall in protest at a ‘single status’ pay deal which will affect 40,000 staff. Although purportedly intended to even out pay gaps between men and women, many women and many of the lowest paid workers will be hit hardest by the new contract. Many staff will lose around £6,000 from their annual pay packets, and one admin worker will see as much as £10,000 — half of her salary — slashed. Overall, 12 percent of council employees will suffer pay cuts, with many others forced to work longer hours for the same wages. Both...

PCS: Strike action halted by executive

PCS members have voted 67.6%, on a turnout of 33.6%, in favour of continuing the campaign of industrial action, but action is being frustrated by the union’s national leadership. This ballot results comes as senior civil service management offer the union talks on better procedures for dealing with “surplus staff”. In addition, they have indicated that they may agree that issues such as hours and leave be determined at a civil service-wide level rather than locally as at present. On 1 November, PCS’s Socialist Party-dominated National Executive decided that in light of the talks no national...

PCS votes yes for more action, but Exec says "not yet"

The "consultative ballot" called by the civil service union PCS about more action on pay and jobs has returned a 68% yes vote. The union Executive Committee met on 1 November but decided to call no further action for now. PCS already has a legal ballot mandate for strike action, but the supposedly left-wing PCS leadership has limited itself to two one-day strikes, 31 January and 1 May, and busied itself with "consulting" while the prison officers' action, the CWU dispute, and the Unison local government ballot came and went. The Exec's reason for calling no further action even now is: After...

Unison accepts 2.475% for local government

The public service union Unison's ballot of its members in local government for action to improve their 2.475% pay offer produced a small majority for action, but the union's Local Government Executive, meeting on 29 October, decided by a large majority to accept the offer and not to call action. According to Unison's official announcement , The ballot closed last Friday, 26 October, and saw 144,719 valid ballot papers returned, with 74,631 members (or 51.6%) voting for action and 70,088 (48.4%) voting against. The committee... overwhelmingly voted for a statement which read: "However, in all...

Why postal workers should oppose the deal

Solidarity spoke to Pete Firmin, branch vice-chair and political officer of London West End Amalgamated CWU The deal is a crock of shite, to put it as politely as I can. If you look at it, Royal Mail have got just about everything they wanted. The union is endorsing the new start times and giving the green light to management’s plans to promote “flexible” working, a series of changes that for many postal workers will mean a real terms pay cut. At the same time, if you go beneath the headline figure, the pay deal is actually almost identical to what we were being offered originally. If you...

The case for selective action

The civil service union PCS is undertaking a critical national consultative ballot of members to find out whether they support the executive council’s strategy in the national dispute over jobs, pay, privatisation and other issues. In strict legal terms the union does not need the ballot as it secured a legal mandate for discontinuous strike action when it balloted members late last year. Indeed, even if the ballot is lost, that would not nullify the existing legal strike mandate. Nevertheless, it is vital that there is a large turnout for the ballot and that members vote “yes”. Anything less...

NHS: Make the unions fight

Two events over the next few weeks could put new impetus into the campaign to defend the NHS. Firstly the release of the film Sicko, by US documentary filmmaker Michael Moore will help demonstrate to a general audience the reality of a privatised healthcare system. In the US the movie has helped generate a new national campaign for socialised healthcare. It is a damming indictment of the inequalities and mistreatment of patients where profit not compassion is the motive. Many local Keep Our NHS Public groups, trade union branches and others are leafleting screenings, block booking seats and...

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