Strikes and lock-outs

The NHS is demonstrably very strapped for cash, as a long list of the biggest hospital Trusts in the country are revealing the largest overspends in the history of the NHS. The trust with the largest overspend, Barts Health NHS Trust, based in East London, is on course to have a run up a deficit of at least £134.9 million (10% of its budget) by the end of the NHS’ financial year on 31 March. Its overspend is 69% bigger than that in 2014-5, which totalled £79.6 million. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, had earmarked £1.8 billion of extra funding for next year, but it looks like this figure...

Junior doctors will be striking on Wednesday 10 February after talks between the British Medical Association (BMA), the government and NHS employers at ACAS broke down on Monday 1 February. The government has made it very clear that it is looking for a show-down with the BMA, and it seems very little progress was made in negotiations. The BMA says that the consideration of Saturday as a normal working-day is a sticking point. Given that talks have broken down it is likely that the government will now stop negotiations about the contract and start trying to impose the contract without an...

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...

Workers at the UK′s train operating companies are facing a huge attack on their pensions due to government legislation that ends the contracting-out of the Second State Pension. The legislation means higher National Insurance contributions for both employees (1.4%) and employers (3.4%). The government has also passed legislation to help employers out with this — by allowing them to carry out annual raids on occupational pensions schemes, without even having to consult with scheme trustees. You might think rail unions would mount a robust defence against any attempts by industry employers to...

On 19 January, the British Medical Association (BMA), acting for junior doctors, suspended a strike planned for 26 January, as the government reopened negotiations on the new contracts. The first strike by junior doctors on 12 January was supported by other trade unionists and the general public. Polls on the strike day showed 66% of the public in support of strikes. Doctors’ picket lines were joined by NHS campaigners and trade unionists from other health unions and other industries, in a huge show of defiance of the threat from NHS employers to take legal action over secondary picketting. As...

Vishnu Parameshwaran is a BMA Junior Doctors' rep at Bart's Health Trust I have been a rep for a year now - I've always been interested in trade unions and workers' rights. Up to now, most of the work of the BMA has been on local issues - making sure that doctors get their contracts on time; monitoring the hours that doctors are working, and so on. We are doctors and our main concern is patients, and that is why we are taking this action today. The new contracts will lead to unsustainable staffing arrangements in the NHS - and that will hurt patients. We are taking action with a heavy heart...

Lambeth Libraries staff have voted overwhelmingly for strike action to save jobs and keep all ten Lambeth libraries open. Staff voted 89% to strike against plans to close libraries and cut jobs. Unison will now be discussing extended strike action with the library workers in the borough. This strike vote follows a community campaign to keep the libraries open, as well as a walk out by staff in December when news circulated that books were already being taken out of one of the libraries. Several Labour Party wards have passed motions criticising their own council’s library closure programme and...

Cleaning and security workers on London’s Docklands Light Railway (DLR) won a big victory before Christmas, settling a long-running dispute over terms and conditions for a deal that represents a 75p/hour pay increase, backdated to April 2015. The workers, employed by outsourced subcontractor Interserve, struck several times throughout 2015. An RMT statement called the deal “a massive breakthrough”, which “gives some much-needed Christmas cheer to a group of London transport workers who have fought long and hard for pay justice.” The statement continued, “this pay victory proves that low paid...

After 102 days of bitter struggle, Hutchison port workers in Brisbane and Sydney, members of the Maritime Union of Australia, voted on 16 November to rescind their previous Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and to vote in another EBA for the next three years. The dispute started on 6 August, when 97 workers, about half the workforce, were sacked overnight by text message and email. The sacked workers ran a 24/7 protest line at the Brisbane and Sydney terminals, with the support of the workers not sacked, who were called in for minimal working hours but handled very little traffic. In the...

Lancashire County Council is on the verge of making sweeping cuts. The cuts include over 2,500 job losses (compulsory and voluntary). Around 40 of the 75 libraries in Lancashire will close, as will 5 out of the 10 council run museums, all subsidised bus routes, and numerous other front line services will be cut. Since 2008 local Lancashire services have been repeatedly cut. Between January 2014 and October 2015 1,100 jobs have gone. In February cuts of £152 million over three years were announced. In November the council revised up the level of cuts as the Tory government announced the...