Pay, hours, conditions

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New York nurses win

Seven thousand nurses in two major New York City hospitals struck in January for three days, and won significant improvements to their contracts. For many strikers the key issues related to unsafe workloads and low pay. The promised deal will provide nursing staff a 19% pay rise (spread over three years), and — in a bid to tackle chronic under-staffing of hospitals — the introduction of 170 new nursing jobs across the two sites and guaranteed patient staffing ratios. Their short, sharp action won the day, and is inspiring others. Earlier this month, 800 nurses nearby on Long Island voted 99%...

RCN due to call more strikes

The RCN looks likely to call a 48-hour strike on 1-3 March, with a reduction of derogations in A&E, intensive care, and cancer units. Unison is thought to be looking for unified strike action with other unions. Escalation and co-ordination are vital and supported by members on the picket lines. For the strikes to win a strategy of increasing action over a short period of time will be much more effective than a long haul of strike days here and there. It’s also important that striking members articulate their demands to maintain pressure on the union leaderships. The RCN demand of 5% above...

UCU: discuss in the branches

As Solidarity goes to press on 14 February, the Higher Education unions have been in talks with employers at the government arbitration service ACAS. In the Guardian , Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, which represents teaching and higher-grade professional staff, has hinted that improvements on non-pay elements such as workload, casualisation and equalities might be key to a deal. Enforceable framework agreements on these issues would certainly be welcome, but they need to be accompanied by a serious pay rise, not another below-inflation offer. Any offer we do get should be discussed in...

NHS bosses are feeling the pressure

Tens of thousands of nurses (RCN) and ambulance service staff (Unite and GMB) walked out on Monday 6 February in a pay dispute, in the first coordinated day of health strikes in this strike wave. Nurses and ambulance workers have previously been striking separately since late last year. Nurses will also walk out on Tuesday 7 February, Unison ambulance staff on Friday 10th, and physiotherapists on Thursday 9th, making the week "probably the most disruptive in NHS history" according to Medical Director Stephen Powis. NHS bosses are putting pressure on the government to reopen pay negotiations...

Unison HE: 2023-4 talks start while 2022-3 dispute continues

A round of balloting before Christmas in Unison Higher Education disappointingly failed to deliver a new tranche of branches for the 2022/23 pay action. Only three more branches got over the 50% turnout threshold; these were branches that had taken slightly longer over balloting. This highlighted that a lot of the problems with delivering a vote for strike were technical: a shortened timescale for balloting as Unison tried to catch up to the UCU timetable; problems with issuing and receiving ballot papers in the post throughout the CWU strikes; balloting around Christmas time; little support...

Over 20 days of Abellio bus strikes

Bus drivers working for Abellio in London have had over 20 days of strikes and continue to be in dispute. Abellio are notorious for being one of the lowest paying bus companies in London. Forensic accountants from the drivers' union, Unite, showed that the parent company Abellio Transport Holdings BV Netherlands had systematically removed £20 million from the London bus operation over 20 years and had held down wages to reduce staff costs from 65% of sales in 2010 to 50% of sales in 2020. Unite balloted members three times in 2022. The first two ballots failed to reach the anti-union law...

RCN staff row complicates nurses' dispute

Members of the GMB employed by the RCN as union staff are undergoing a consultative ballot over the latest pay offer from the union. The GMB put in a claim for 12.6%, but the RCN Executive has returned, after negotiations, with an offer far lower than that. Grades F and below (£23k to £48K, not including London weighting) are being offered 5.6%; the higher grades (paid between £60k and £138k, not including London weighting) between 4% and 2%. All grades are also offered an additional £1,200 unconsolidated payment. The RCN has a lot of staff, many of whom earn significantly more than the...

Workplace meetings needed to sustain strikes

At the time of writing, 6 February, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members in England have been on strike in the first of two consecutive days of action, the fifth since the dispute began. England-wide reports are mostly of picket lines considerably smaller than previously. This may be a blip — and we know that many members were "striking from home". Perhaps picket lines will have been bigger on the second day of action (7 February, as this paper was going to print). But the setback is not surprising in the context of the RCN approach to the strikes so far. The RCN is new to striking, and has...

NHS: reballot, unite, organise

To win, NHS workers need escalation, and that also means pushing for re-ballots, especially in trusts where Unison missed the thresholds. Currently RCN strikes are being undermined where Unison members have been instructed by their branches to cross picket lines. We have advocated support for Unison members who decide not to cross RCN picket lines. Thousands of Unison members have left their union and joined the RCN because they want to strike. Beyond that, the best way to achieve solid action in a workplace is for all the unions to win legal mandates and strike together. Winning second...

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