TGWU

Transport and General Workers Union

Birmingham to strike 23-24 April

Birmingham City Council workers will strike again on 23 and 24 April over the council’s plans to use “single status” negotiations to cut pay and jobs. Unison, T&G Unite, GMB, Amicus and UCATT made the call on 9 April. They will stage pickets at refuse depots, schools, libraries, offices and care homes on each morning before joining a rally in Victoria Square at noon on Thursday April 24. Many years back, local government employers and unions agreed a Single Status “framework” at national level, to put blue-collar and white-collar workers into a single pay structure. But each local authority...

Workers' Liberty bulletin on Shelter ballot

A call for Shelter workers to vote on in the ballot on the Shelter bosses' offer of a (small) lump-sum payment in return for substantial cuts in pay and increases in hours.

Shelter union reps recommend rejection of bosses' offer

TGWU-Unite reps in the housing organisation Shelter are recommending rejection in a ballot of workers, due to start on Wednesday 26 March, of the offer made in ACAS talks by Shelter bosses on a pay-and-hours dispute. Spurred on by strong first responses to the offer by workplace meetings in London and Manchester, the union reps will be arguing for further action. Shelter bosses want to impose drastic cuts in pay and conditions - after awarding themselves large salary rises, and an expensive refurbishment of their headquarters office - in order to pursue the shift of Shelter from being a...

Shelter bosses back down (partly)

After two days of strike action, bosses at Shelter, an organisation providing services to the homeless, have agreed to put "on hold" their plans to cut workers' pay and conditions. The bosses made the concession at a meeting with TGWU-Unite shop stewards on Monday 17th. The dispute now goes to negotiations at the official conciliation service ACAS, and further strikes planned for 19 and 20 March have been suspended. Workers unused to striking, in a sector unused to strikes, have shown that the solidarity they displayed in the strikes on 5 March and 10 March, and in the prospect of further...

From charity to capitalist contractor?

On Wednesday 5 March 450 members of Unite union who work at Shelter struck for the first time in the housing charity’s 41 year history. A Shelter worker explains the background. Since his arrival in 2003, Shelter’s headhoncho has seen his salary increase from “between £50-60,000” to “between “£90-100,000”. He is paid more than the top boss at Oxfam, despite Shelter having a massively lower turnover than the NGO. The bosses who award themselves pay-rises of this scale are the same people who are now aggressively pushing a deal that will see Shelter workers’ pay and conditions slashed. The worst...

RMT, TGWU-Unite mobilise to back Iranian trade unionists

In an effort unusual for British unions, the rail union RMT and the TGWU mobilised members on Thursday 6 March to leaflet at several rail stations in support of the jailed Iranian trade unionists Mansour Ossanloo and Mahmoud Salehi. Workers' Liberty members joined in to help, though sadly, in London at least, the rest of the left didn't. Mahmoud Salehi has sent a message to the protesters: The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and their affiliates along with colleagues of the Global Unions Federations are organizing an...

Motion for a special conference of Unite

[Activists in the Amicus bit of Unite may wish to omit the reference to the TGWU Biennial Delegate Conference] We note the statement from the General Executive Committee put to the Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU section of Unite in July 2007. > It called for "an end to the manipulation of [Labour Party] conference by the party leadership and the ignoring of conference decisions by ministers". It also said that "the right of party conference to make party policy needs to be upheld and respected." We further note with dismay the decisions taken at the 2007 Labour Party conference...

Shelter workers vote on national strike

On Thursday 21 February, we will find out if some 450 members of the TGWU/Unite have voted in favour of national strike action, an event which would be a first in Shelter's 41-year history. They are faced with a package of cuts which will result in all 800+ staff working two and a half extra hours per week (unpaid) and without the current incremental pay scale which they are currently entitled to (worth £2k-£3k on top of starting salaries). On top of this, scores of frontline advice and support staff are to be made redundant and “redeployed” into lower-paid jobs in a "new operating model"...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.