Industrial news in brief

Submitted by Matthew on 16 May, 2012 - 8:59

The British Medical Association (BMA), the professional association for doctors, has begun balloting its 103,000 members for industrial action.

The BMA is opposed to increases in employee contributions to doctors’ pensions scheme, and the raising of the pension age from 65 to 68. Although the BMA has ruled out a full strike, a positive result in the ballot could see doctors refusing to perform any duties or procedures that could be safely postponed.

Doctors last took industrial action in 1975.

Justice for Dayna

Tube union RMT has launched a high-profile public campaign to win reinstatement for Dayna Nembhard, a Tube worker and RMT member sacked after defending herself from a racist attack which took place while she was off-duty.

A meeting for union activists on Wednesday 16 May will organise leafleting and petitioning amongst workers on the Underground. The RMT will also be raising the issue politically through its Parliamentary group and will lobby Dayna’s Greater London Assembly member, Navin Shah.

It has already committed itself to move the campaign towards industrial action if this proves necessary.

• For the background to the campaign see here

• To sign the petition to support Dayna’s reinstatement, visit here

Hackney College workers fight

A bosses’ plan to axe 55 jobs at Hackney College in north east London could be met by strikes from further education workers.

The management of the college is proposing the most severe cuts to the institution’s budget for 20 years. The cuts do not include any proposals to cut back on senior managements pay or conditions but focus exclusively on job losses and course cuts. Among the courses on the chopping block are ones which help unemployed young people develop the skills to find work.

Rose Veitch, a rep for the University and College Union at Hackney Community College, said: “With youth unemployment at an all time high and total joblessness in Hackney at over 7 per cent, there is a desperate need for a stable and thriving college in the borough. These plans will cut off educational opportunities in a borough where last year’s riots demonstrated the desperate need to invest in tackling deprivation and social exclusion.”

Workers and their supporters are holding a public meeting on Wednesday 16 May and plan a march and protest, which will leave the college at noon, on Saturday 26 May.

An earlier meeting of UCU members at the college agreed to ask their union to sanction an official ballot for industrial action.

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