(vice chair Islington NALGO) The UNISON (NALGO, NUPE and CO. HSE) have put forward a local goverment white collar pay claim based on a 700 flat-rate increase for all workers.
Predictably, this has been rejocted by the employers, who have offered a 1.5 per cent increase in line with the goverment's public sector pay limit. Despite claim has the potential for buildcal government unions.
But winning such action will not be easy. With high unemployment, job cuts remain there will be a temptation to accept low pay in the hope hat this will save jobs.
Nowhere has this been more starkiy Bristaica tat in sacl field council, where the workforce voted to accept pay cuts in order to avoid redundancies.
If public sector expenditure cuts can be translated directly worker's conditions, this will any labour councillors who nave qualms about redundancies. In this sense the fight against the pay limit is an essenta. component of the fight against cuts and not counterThe separate settlement dates for manual and white collar workers undermine the potential for maximising united accampaigning for a common programme of national action across all unions, whatever the seulement date.
UNISON is due to come into existence on 1 July 1993 (quaintly called Vesting Day). By coincidence this is the settlement date for local goverment white collar pay. Let's invest both the date and the new union with for it to be a day of national strike action, in unison, across local government. Smashing pay limit crucial to fighting council cuts nalgo 'OFFICIAL I PICKET