Public sector pay battle 2007-8

The campaign against Gordon Brown's 2%% pay limit for public sector workers

Jobs fight: London Underground, media

As we go to press workers on London Underground are balloting over strike action to defend job cuts and pay. London Underground is cutting more than a thousand jobs in administration grades. Transport for London is due to cut around three and a half thousand jobs over the next eighteen months. At the same time London Underground have made an offer of a five-year pay deal — RPI plus one percent in the first year and then RPI only for the next four years. That is an effective pay cut. ISS and Tubelines have also announced that they would not be paying the final instalment of the London living...

Probation Service: Build support for a ballot

PROBATION SERVICE: Probation areas up and down the country are facing huge cuts in government funding. Redundancies are already on the cards in several areas along with attacks on terms and conditions. In Yorkshire and Humberside, one of the worst affected regions, there are job cuts proposed in West Yorks, South Yorks, North Yorks and Humberside. Unison and napo. the trade unions that represent probation workers, have begun to organise against the cutbacks. Workers are angry that vast amounts of money have been squandered centrally on expensive privatisations, excessive use of private...

Stop these job cuts! Cut work hours, Expand public services!

According to the bosses’ Confederation of British Industry unemployment will reach 2.9 million by 2010 — an unemployment rate of about 9 percent — up from 1.8 million now. That is nearly as high as the figure reached under the Tories in 1982 and 1992. At the end of 2006, New Labour politicians were still boasting about their record of keeping unemployment low. In fact, even the million-odd people claiming Job-Seekers' Allowance then was still a huge number, and the real jobless total was higher still. Now, job losses are multiplying, as the bosses seek to make workers pay for the economic...

Why the teachers didn’t strike

In a recent ballot organised by the National Union of Teachers for discontinuous strike action, 29.7% of eligible members took part and of these 51.7% supported strike action with 48.3% voting against. At an Executive meeting on 6 November we were provided with regional and association (branch) breakdowns of results. In my opinion this made our decision a lot clearer. Together with all but three Executive members I voted to accept the recommendation that we do not proceed to call action. Here are the main reasons why: • The majority for action was marginal. There are circumstances where we...

PCS leaders' explanation for calling off the 10 November strike

This is the full text of the PCS leadership's explanation to union reps of why the 10 November strike was called off. PCS suspends national industrial action over pay The PCS national executive committee met this morning and following their receipt of a letter from Sir Gus O'Donnell, head of the home civil service, have decided to suspend the industrial action planned from Monday 10 November and the overtime ban proposed to commence on Tuesday 11 November. Further information will be issued on Monday via this website. All PCS reps are asked to pass this message on to members. Letter from Gus O...

The SWP in PCS

The Socialist Workers Party has three members on the NEC as part of the Left Unity slate – Sue Bond, one of the National Vice Presidents, Andy Reid, and Paul Williams. Paul Williams is a serious trade union militant who AWL supporters suspect was placed on the NEC slate to stiffen the backbone of the SWP NEC members (for instance the then SWP NEC members, including Sue Bond, had supported the calling off the planned jobs, pay and pensions strike in 2005). Whatever the case, the fact is that the SWP’s PCS members have pretty much supported the approach of the NEC to national pay and the other...

PCS leaders' record on action for national pay

In November 2004 PCS members struck in support of six demands, including national pay. Yet pay never featured in the propaganda for the dispute. Similarly, in 2005, members were balloted on a number of demands – including jobs and pay - but were then told the planned strike, called off for the “two tier” pensions deal, was really only ever about pensions (and frankly pay again did not really feature in the membership bulletins). In 2004 AWL and Socialist Caucus supporters (now Independent Left supporters) moved a conference motion effectively calling on the NEC to organise a national ballot...

PCS leaders' record on national pay negotiations

In 2005 the PCS leadership said, “We have persuaded the Government to introduce a fairer, more coherent pay system…” It was typical of the spin that has come to characterise the PCS’s would-be Marxist leadership. The real truth is the Government had no intention of introducing a “fairer, more coherent” pay system (hence the need for the strike planned for Monday 10th November 2008). Indeed the lack of detail at the time showed that the PCS leadership either knew the Government was not so persuaded or it genuinely believed its own hype but had no idea what it had persuaded the Government to do...

The politics of the PCS's dispute over national civil service pay

The PCS national dispute is a necessary strike against a gratuitous government pay policy that is squeezing public sector workers at a time of sharply rising costs. It is a fight we have to win if civil servants are not to have their living standards slashed this year and in coming years. PCS organising defensive industrial action across many tens of thousands of workers challenges the very logic of British politics today that sees workers wages squeezed while the rich get richer and bankers get bailed out. There is a great deal of potential to build on the dispute, recruit new members, defend...

PCS backdown was a mistake

The PCS National Executive Committee's decision to "suspend" the national civil service one day strike planned for Monday 10 November is at best a dreadful mistake. Or it may be a prelude to abandoning the action, possibly on the pretext of some relatively minor concession. This is a longer version of the article than in the printed paper. See also: The Politics of the PCS Dispute PCS leaders' record on national pay negotiations PCS leaders' record on action for national pay The SWP in PCS PCS leaders' explanation for calling off the 10 November strike The explanation was given somewhat...

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