Unite

NHS Workers Say No issue "vote no" leaflet

The NHS Workers Say No! group has put out a leaflet calling on health workers to vote no to the current offer and organise for renewed industrial action at a higher tempo. Click here for the PDF

West Midlands buses on indefinite strike

Over 3,000 bus drivers and more than 200 bus engineers who work for West Midlands Travel were due to start an indefinite strike across the West Midlands on Thursday 16 March. The strike plan produced a last-minute improved offer: workers are voting on it, and if they reject the offer, then the strike starts 20 March. The ballot for action was a massive step forward for Unite in National Express: the Bus Combine worked with local reps to deliver a 73% turn out and 96% yes vote by the drivers. West Midlands Travel is wholly owned by National Express and is the largest bus operator in the West...

Health pay: break the pause!

The strikes over pay for Agenda for Change (i.e. most) NHS employees in England are paused for negotiation. After the RCN cancelled their strikes in England at the beginning of March to go into unilateral negotiations, Unison, GMB, CSP and then Unite called off their planned action to join too. The government preconditions for negotiations with these unions were: cancellation of strikes; any uplift for 2022-23 would be a one-off unconsolidated payment; the talks to cover 2023-24 pay and “efficiency” reforms; and any offer coming from the negotiations to be recommended by trade unions to their...

Prepare for the ballot in local government

Unison’s representatives on the local government National Joint Committee (NJC) that cover pay for local government and school support staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland — voted on Friday 10 March to reject the £1,925 flat rate offer from employers and go to an industrial action ballot. The ballot, which will be disaggregated by employer, is likely to run from 23 May to 4 July, and could see local government workers joining taking strike in the summer and autumn. The offer did not meet the claim for a 12.7% pay-rise for all workers, or come close to the starting salary of £15 per...

Reject the offer, rebuild local government unions

On 23 February, council employers offered a flat rate award of £1,925, or 3.88% for those on higher wages, from April 2023, for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland The claim from the unions (Unison, GMB and Unite) was for RPI + 2% (interpreted as 12.7%), a £15 per hour minimum wage in two years, pus extra leave and other improved conditions. The value of council workers’ pay has fallen by 25% in real terms since 2010, and the lowest grades have now almost been caught up by the government’s legal minimum wage of £10.42 (from April 2023). With this backdrop, it is not surprising that council...

NHS: escalate and coordinate

This report was written before the RCN called off its action. We have seen some important announcements in the ongoing NHS pay dispute. Re-ballots in Unison: from ten ballots run in England, Unison got a mandate for strike action in another nine trusts. Junior doctors vote to strike: A ballot by the British Medical Association, junior doctors went 98% for strikes, on a 77% turnout: they will strike for 72 hours in March. Junior doctors in the smaller Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association already voted for strikes in January (97% for, 75% turnout), and will be out on 15 March. The...

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...

Unite: disaffiliation attempts continue to simmer

Until 3 February Unite union branches will be nominating candidates for the union’s Executive. Voting is 27 March to 25 April. There are two slates: United Left (UL), and what could be called the Sharon Graham (SG) slate. The United Left, long dominant on the Executive, was always primarily an electoral machine in the tradition of the old Broad Lefts, dominated by the politics of the Morning Star . Apart from a sometimes substantial dissident minority, it was uncritical of Len McCluskey, general secretary 2011-21. It declined, then was thrown into disarray when Steve Turner, its candidate in...

Anti-strike law fight must start now

Newly “elected” TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak (he was the sole candidate in an election in which the electorate consists only of members of the TUC General Council) has responded to the threat of harsh new anti-strike laws by saying that the TUC will “challenge them legally”, and make the Tories “pay a high political price”. The exact nature of the price, and how payment will be exacted, is not specified. Nowak has also said he doesn’t want to “go back to the 1980s”, implying he opposes the full repeal of all the anti-strike and anti-union laws, despite TUC congress having repeatedly voted...

Unite scandal: give the members the facts

Unite has forwarded two internal reports on the construction costs of the union’s conference and education centre in Birmingham to the police. The original estimated construction cost was £57 million, and the final cost £100 million. According to the media coverage , the two reports — one written by a KC, and one by an accountancy firm — reveal “potentiality criminality” in overcharging on a number of the construction contracts. The escalating costs first became a media story in late 2020. In January 2021 a special meeting of Unite’s national Executive Council (EC) adopted a statement...

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