UNISON

By Ed Whitby, Newcastle City Council Unison THE following motion, opposing both the raising of the local government retirement age for a full pension to 65 and the creation of a two-tier workforce with different pension rights, was passed unanimously by Newcastle City Council Unison at the start of November. The branch agreed to send the motion to the union’s regional and national local government service groups and to circulate it around as many other local government branches as possible. A similar motion was passed by Islington Council Unison to be sent to the London local government...

By Heenal Rajani, Lambeth Council Unison Unison members protested outside the head office of the Local Government Association in London on October 27, wearing skeleton costumes and masks, against plans to make local government workers “work till they drop” for their pensions. Shortly before the general election, deputy prime minister John Prescott agreed to revoke plans to raise the local government pension age to 65 and abolish the “85 year rule” which allows council workers to retire as early as 55 if their years of service and age add up to 85. The LGA’s “new” plans, published in mid...

Caretakers at Huddersfield Technical College started an indefinite strike on November 1 over poverty pay and the existence of a two-tier workforce. The college is refusing to speak to their union, Kirklees Unison branch, so the struggle continues. Donations and messages of support to Kirklees Unison, 20 Queen Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2QT or, phone 01484 223 377 or fax 01484 450 174.

Industrial action against Sefton Council, which is accusing six of its workers of intimidation after they attended a protest against theprivatisation of council housing is continuing. The unions accuse management of wanting to victimise Unison shop steward Nigel Flanagan. Workers from the council’s highways department have now joined the strike, bringing the total number of strikers to about 80. Other workers are due to come out if the victimisation issue is not resolved.

by a unison member The Government, via the local government employers, has put down its new proposals for cutting local government pensions. They are worse than the proposals on the table earlier this year, when the main local government unions scheduled strike action, only to cancel it when the Government promised further talks. The employers want negotiations completed by 15 October to give the Government time to prepare its distribution of funds to local authorities for the financial year 2006-7. According to Unison, the biggest local government union, the employers propose to: • From 1...

On 23 July Coventry UNISON branch held a national rally in response to the council’s plans to implement pay cuts of up to £6000 per year in the name of “Single Status” — equal pay and conditions for women. UNISON has attacked Coventry’s Tory council for funding wage increases for some workers with cutbacks on others’ pay, rather than lobbying central government for more money. Indeed, the execution of the Single Status plan is so flawed that the majority of workers losing out from the scheme will be women. For example, traditionally female-dominated jobs like secretaries face pay cuts of 26%...

A round-up of the latest news from the UK labour movement HOW NOT TO STOP THE ROT The TUC is consulting over replacing annual TUC Congresses with biennial Congresses (i.e. every two years). Their consultative document also floats the idea of replacing the annual equality conferences (women, black workers, LGBT, and disability), the annual conference of Trades Union Councils, and the annual Young Members Conference with biennial conferences. In its own way, and in its own language, the TUC’s document says a lot about the current state of the union movement. It says that the TUC Congress is...

350 library workers in Sheffield have been on all-out indefinite strike since 5 June over the council’s threat to remove enhanced pay for weekend work, breaking national conditions of service. All workers in the Council’s leisure department face the same threat, resulting in a pay cut of up to 7% for some of the lowest paid workers. The strike is solid. Clare Renshaw, a libraries shop steward and striker, spoke to Workers’ Liberty: “This strike is about national conditions of service. We’re not striking for more pay but to keep hold of our pay. We are low paid, and women workers. We can’t...