Unite

Trade unions have described the electoral wipeout of the Tories from Southampton City Council as “the chickens coming home to roost”. The Tory council, under the leadership of Royston Smith, pursued an aggressive cuts agenda, targeting both local services and pay and conditions for council employees. The cuts sparked a high-profile industrial battle which saw workers take months’ worth of strike action. The campaign had an unusually high-levels of grassroots participation and rank-and-file control of the direction of the strike. Despite the action, the council’s attempt to impose new, worse...

On 10 May the PCS civil service union is striking against the government’s “work longer, pay more, get less” changes to public sector pensions. The lecturers’ union UCU is also striking, in further education colleges and post-1992 universities. Members of the Unite union in the health service will be staging protests and industrial action. There is talk of a further strike, maybe involving the teachers’ union NUT, in late June. To make 10 May a relaunch, and not just a swansong, PCS needs to genuinely place itself on a “war footing”: * vigorous recruiting of new members; * a levy to help fund...

The biennial policy conference of the Unite union takes place at the end of June. It is important that Unite members take the opportunity to argue for policies which would help make Unite fight politically and industrially against the Tories, and against the Labour Party leadership. Over the last six months, Unite has produced a political strategy which outlines its view on how to transform the Labour Party — a policy which, if implemented, would involve Unite fighting against the right-wing political leadership of the Labour Party, for trade union backed MPs, a restoration of democracy and...

Unite will ballot its 2,500 members at Ford plants across the UK for strike action after the motor industry giant announced plans to close its final-salary pension scheme to new starters. Attacks on private sector pension schemes are becoming increasingly common. Retail manufacturing company Unilever made a similar move in 2011, sparking several days of strike action in early 2012. According to Ford’s figures, 80% of private-sector employers have closed final-salary schemes to new starters. Unite officer Roger Maddison said: “We fiercely oppose the closure of Ford's final salary scheme to new...

Workers at Sunderland College will be balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay. According to the University and College Union, “The college intends to cut the salaries of more than 150 lecturers by £10,000 and downgrade 70% of its teaching workforce to inferior pay grades.” The ballot closes on Friday 18 May. Nearly 100 workers employed across 13 libraries in Greenwich have launched a series of strikes to prevent the privatisation of their workplaces. Workers struck on 27, 28 and 30 April and are due to strike again on 1 and 11 May. The local council wants to outsource the running of...

More than 2,000 fuel tanker drivers will vote on an offer from the fuel haulage industry’s major employers that bosses hope will settle a dispute on job security, health and safety, and minimum standards. The workers’ union, Unite, is recommending rejection of the deal – which has already been opposed by a conference of union reps. Unite officer Diana Holland said that the bosses’ proposals “do not give enough guarantees that the instability and insecurity gripping the industry will come to an end.” The ballot on the deal closes on Friday 11 May.

The precise extent of the public sector pensions strike on 10 May remains unclear, as some unions are pushing the day as a mere “day of action”, while others emphasise walkouts and pickets. Unite promises “rallies and demos” as well as “pickets” by its members in NHS, while the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) promises a strike. According to a report to the Unison Executive by Unison general secretary Dave Prentis, at the TUC Public Services Liaison Group National Union of Teachers officials said NUT members would not be taking action on 10 May, and Unite officials were unclear on...

A conference of oil tanker driver trade union reps has overwhelmingly voted to reject the deal offered by fuel haulage bosses in an attempt to avert a potential strike over safety and minimum standards. Although the drivers’ union, Unite, resumed talks at conciliation service ACAS, the decision piled pressure on the union to name strike days, something it had been reluctant to do since drivers voted for action. In a nervy anticipation of a legal challenge, it has even begun re-balloting drivers at one company (Hoyer), meaning those workers cannot take part in any strike action until their...

Workers at BMW’s Oxford plant have voted by 97% to oppose management’s latest pay offer. The consultative ballot, which was conducted by the Unite union, polled 2,000 employees. The pay deal included a basic increase of 2.21%, of which nearly 2% was contingent on working extra hours. Since the ballot, BMW bosses have offered further talks. While “welcoming” the talks, Unite has said it will press on with plans to move to a full ballot for industrial action to win a better deal. Unite officer Roger Maddison said: “There are more strings to this deal than a puppet show and the workers at BMW...

Unite officials and fuel industry bosses have negotiated a deal to extend the legal validity of a drivers’ strike ballot until Friday 20 April as talks continue. Peter Harwood, “Chief Conciliator” at arbitration service ACAS, has told the press that “the intention is that no industrial action will be called in that period”. The period in which Unite would have had to announce industrial action in order to keep the ballot live was due to expire at 4pm on Monday 16 April. Under the new agreement, Unite could call a strike any time from 21 April to 27 April (they are required to give at least...