Unite

The universities of Winchester, Surrey, and Queen Mary have added themselves to the list of higher education institutions claiming financial deficits leading to job losses and course closures.

On 29 February staff employed by Glasgow East Women’s Aid (GEWA) were called into a meeting with members of the Board of Directors and informed that the organisation was closing down with immediate effect for reason of insolvency.

Unions are balloting for strikes following the announcement of massive job cuts at Tata Steel. The Indian conglomerate Tata, which has recorded profits of over £23bn, has confirmed this month that it plans axing up to 2,800 jobs; It will close two blast furnaces at Port Talbot, with potential redundancies also at another site, in Llanwern. It is already closing the Morfa Coke Ovens, in Port Talbot, on 20 March. Tata Steel currently employs 8,000 people in the UK, 3,859 people at the Port Talbot site. A protest has been held in Port Talbot, and workers from the Llanwern site (where 917 are...

A spirited demo of 700 steel workers and their local supporters took place in Port Talbot on Saturday 17 February. Tata, the owner of the steel works in Port Talbot, has announced that it plans to shut down permanently the blast furnaces that make steel from iron ore and coal. Tata will sack 2,800 steel workers. Tata says the furnaces are loss-making and cite the need to move to a system of making steel that produces less CO 2 to lever cash from the Government. The Tory Government have stumped up £500 million to help Tata build a new electric arc furnace that will be able to smelt and recycle...

Port Talbot steel reps and supporters from Unite the Union were at Parliament on 23 January as an Opposition Day debate heard Labour call for Tata and the Government to hold back from any “irreversible decisions” and pledge to put £3 billion into saving steel production in Wales. On 19 January Tata UK announced plans to close the blast furnaces at Port Talbot and make up to 2,800 workers redundant. The knock-on effect would be up to 10,000 job losses. Ieuan Eltham, a Unite shop steward said that these plans, “will decimate Port Talbot and South Wales”. Although the steelworks has already...

The UK steel industry is at a crossroads. Steel production is carbon intensive. A transition is needed if the UK is to meet its carbon goals. And the UK’s four blast furnaces, which produce 80 per cent of our steel and provide thousands of jobs, need replacing over the next decade or so. Their owners have proposed a more rapid closure with the loss of up to 5,000 direct jobs and many more beyond that. Steel production has been in a long decline in the UK. At its peak in the early 1970s, the industry employed around 320,000 people. It is now somewhere around 5-10% of that. Just before Margaret...

Members of Unite the Union employed – or formerly employed – by Glasgow East Women’s Aid (GEWA) begin a campaign of rolling strike action and protests on Friday 1 December. The dispute began when Unite members in GEWA lodged a collective grievance about bullying in the workplace. Management’s response was to suspend all thirteen signatories to the grievance. Which kind of proved their point. The mass suspensions deprived service-users and would-be service-users of support from GEWA. GEWA’s offices have been closed for over eight weeks. Vulnerable service-users have been directed to an...

On 2 November the Unite Save UK Steel campaign held a day of action in Sheffield, Port Talbot, Teesside and Scunthorpe. In Sheffield about 20 people took part, mostly Unite staff members, Unite Community, and retired members. Three students from Sheffield Solidarity Group also took part. The action consisted of a short march followed by holding banners above bridges over the roads. The main chant was “We don’t need your pity, invest in our steel city”, and most of the banners read “Support UK Steel”. There was a lack of specificity to the chants and demands, though a detailed policy report is...

The April 2023 pay round in England and Wales local government is not yet settled. No increase has been paid, but the three unions are failing to coordinate. This makes the case for one workplace one union, as Workers’ Liberty has fought for. Immediately we need to build unity on the ground across all three unions. After a ballot between 23 May and 4 July, Unison, the largest of the three unions, decided to take no action. 75% voted for industrial action to improve an offer of £1,925 (£2,352 for London members), but the ballot fell short of the Tory 50% turnout threshold in the overwhelming...

Unison members in Scottish schools will strike 26-28 September, despite the GMB and Unite pulling out of what was to be a joint strike by the three unions. 21,000 Unison members working in 24 of Scotland 32 local authorities will strike. GMB members in ten local authorities and Unite members in eleven local authorities had been due to strike. Although the strike is for a pay rise for all council staff, it specifically targets schools and early years centres. Unison members on strike are school cleaners, kitchen staff, admin. workers and support staff. All three unions had rejected an offer by...