Solidarity? What's that? asks Home Secretary David Blunkett going in to Labour's Welsh Conference in Cardiff, past protesting workers from the Friction Dynamex dispute. The TGWU members were sacked last summer after taking strike action over conditions in the North Wales plant. www.frictiondynamex.co.uk have been pegged to the national pay awards. most expensive city in the world. unable to recruit. flat rate £4000 backdated to April 200l. appropriate. ward to strike action. returned a 'no' vote. 'yes' and 'no' was universally massive. Palestinians' take place on May 1. ensure a massive and enthusiastic strike.
professional were deficient and open to legal challenge.
timetable. after May 3rd and the first strike to be called on May 14th. Activists should now put all their efforts into winning the official ballot and turning the mood into real action. Meetings, both big and small, need organising to Executive opposi- reinforce the message to members to vote 'YES'. New recruits can be signed up. The stronger the campaign at work, the bigger the 'yes' vote will be. The result will undoubtedly be a "yes" Executive to: canvass vote, but a massive turnout member's don't pay up. frustration and the of PAY OFFER NUT General Committee in a personal capacity) For the last three decades, rises in the cost of living allowance for council workers in London have been pegged to national 28 years ago, Council workers in Nalgo (now part of Unison) took strike action and won a substantial rise in the London Weighting. The London Weighting is now totally inadequate for council workers, generally low paid, living in London, which is now the Not only do council workers suffer from the high cost of living, but the delivery of public services also suffer as employers are Unison has submitted to the London employers a claim for a The employers have responded by stating that this claim was unacceptable as they could not afford it. They also stated that a flat rate was no longer appropriate and that "recruitment and retention" packages for certain groups of staff may be more Unison has just concluded a "consultative" ballot of its members which resulted in a 6 to I majority in favour of going forThis overwhelming result shows the level of dissatisfaction amongst Council workers over pay. Not one branch in London The turnout in the ballot was on average 30%, although it was up to 60% in some branches. However the margin between The one-day strike by teachers for their London Weighting, also f4000, gave confidence to members to vote for strike action as a necessary way forward to win our claim.
Delegates from Unison branches at the London Local Government Committee decided unanimously to push for a quick ballot which would have allowed the first one-day strike to The symbolism of Mayday, the international workers day and this year also the day before the council elections, would have However, regional and national full-time officials urged caution against taking this swift action by claiming that membership lists The real reason for putting of the strike beyond Mayday was the desire of some within the union to protect New Labour from political embarrassment. Even so, it was a close run thing as the Industrial Action Committee, which authorises the ballot and the action, voted by only one vote to delay the ballot The ballot is due to start on April 19th, the result announced PAl is needed to ensure that effective strike action is taken to win.
The strike on May 14th will be a start, but the employers need to know Unison members are ready and able to escalate if they COUNCIL WORKERS REJECT NATIONAL The offer of a 3% pay rise, or just 15p an hour for the lowest paid, to all council workers is a kick in the teeth. All three unions - UNISON, the GMB and the T&GWU - are urging their members to reject this offer while making it clear that industrial action will be needed to win a bigger increase.
UNISON is claiming a 6% rise or £1,750, whichever is the greater. This claim is meant to start to redress the appalling levImproved public services cannot be achieved without investing in the staff who provide them. Yet council services are plagued with staff shortages, high turnover, and low pay. Local government has the highest level of temporary workers in the econCouncillors' allowances went up by 60% last year, taking them to £12,500. Yet more than a quarter of a million council employees are still paid less than £5 an hour, and two thirds earn a basic rate worth less than £13,000, compared with a national UNISON is now running a consultative ballot, which will result in rejection in the miserly offer from the employers. The last national strike over pay was in 1988, under a Tory government.
In order to repeat this successful action, the leadership of the council workers unions will have to launch a national campaign to regain the confidence of members by showing that they are prepared to break with New Labour if that is necessary to