Unison NHS ballot flops - BT pay deal - £15,000 payout for striking workers
28 November - 4 December 2022
The furious momentum that has seen huge successful ballots across the public and private sectors has finally hit a bump on the road, as last week Unison announced that it had failed to secure a strike mandate at the vast majority of NHS England workplaces it balloted.
The 34% turnout across the country means that only eight of the roughly 200 NHS workplaces where members of the public sector union were voting on industrial action will be able to strike this winter. This is in sharp contrast to the RCN, which balloted a similar number of workers (roughly 300,000), and where most workplaces returned a vote in favour of strike action. Even PCS, which had a national ballot in 2019 that failed to pass the 50% participation threshold required by the 2016 Trade Union Act, saw more than half of its 150,000 civil service members vote in favour of strike action this year.
Read on for this, but also the CWU reaching a deal with BT, a group of striking workers at GE winning more than £15,000 each and how workers at the Royal Society of the Arts defeated a hostile anti-union campaign from a government levelling-up advisor.
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DISPUTES
Unison ballot flop: Unison’s ballot of NHS members has returned a mandate for strike action at just eight sites, according to NHS Employers, half of those in the North West region. The union had balloted members at a total of 200 NHS employers, the BBC reports.
Ambulance strikes: GMB members across nine ambulance service trusts in England and Wales have voted to strike over pay, as have Unite members working in the ambulance service, the unions say.
Life-preserving care: Chemotherapy, dialysis, critical care units such as ‘intensive care’ and ‘high dependency’, neonatal and paediatric intensive care will be exempt from strike action to ensure life-preserving care, the RCN says.
BT Group deal: CWU is balloting its members over a pay deal from BT, which will see pay permanently increasing by £3000, a 6% - 16% increase for workers of different grades, the union says.
Rail offer rejected: The RMT has rejected the latest offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), the union says. The RDG is offering 4% in 2022 and 2023, conditional on workers accepting changes to working practices, job losses, driver only operated trains on all companies and the closure of all ticket offices, it says.
More train strikes: TSSA says it has served notice of strike action at a further six train operating companies for 17 December. The union is also re-balloting members at seven train operating companies until 22 December.
Rail strikes: Unite members working on Network Rail in electrical control rooms will join striking rail workers during planned strike action in December and January, the union says.
Elizabeth Line ballot: TSSA is balloting members working on London’s Elizabeth Line for strike action as part of a dispute over pay, the union says.
Eurostar security strike: Eurostar security officers are striking after rejecting a below-inflation pay offer, RMT says
Civil service strikes: Workers at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Rural Payments Agency and The National Highways are the first to announce strike dates in relation to the civil service pay dispute, PCS says.
Heathrow grounded: Around 350 Heathrow Airport Ground handlers employed by Menzies have announced fresh strike action as part of their ongoing dispute over pay, Unite says.
Outsourced hospital workers strike: Around 200 outsourced housekeeping, catering and maintenance staff at hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury, Margate, Folkestone and Dover, are voting on strike action, Unite says. Most of the workers are paid little more than the minimum wage, the union says.
Sellafield strike ballot: Hundreds of cleaners working for outsourced company Mitie at Sellafield nuclear plant are taking part in a ballot over a 0% pay offer, GMB says.
Refuse workers strike in Wirral: Around 200 workers employed by Biffa on the outsourced Wirral council refuse contract will begin strike action this week in a dispute over pay, Unite says.
Norfolk refuse workers closer to ballot: Norfolk refuse workers are moving closer to an industrial action ballot after they rejected the latest pay offer of less than 5% from Serco, the Eastern Daily Press reports.
Highlands airports strike: Highlands and Islands airports workers have voted to strike after rejecting a 5% pay deal, Unite says.
College strikes: Truro & Penwith College, and Barnet and Southgate College workers are on strike as part of long-running disputes over pay, UCU says.
Hackney library ballot: Hackney library workers are being balloted for strike action as part of their ongoing dispute over job cuts, The Hackney Citizen reports. The Unison campaign page has a tool for Hackney residents to email their local councillors.
Solidarity ballot: Felixstowe Port workers are voting on a consultative strike ballot after seven union members and reps were victimised by their employer, Unite says.
London bus strikes suspended: Unite has suspended a strike by 2000 bus drivers employed by Metroline as members vote on an improved pay offer, the union says.
Businesses ask for Royal Mail to negotiate: The Federation of Small Businesses, the British Chambers of Commerce and eBay write in The Times that Royal Mail and the CWU should negotiate to avert further strike action.
POLITICS AND POLICY
Support for strikes grows: Britons are more likely than they were five months ago to say a number of professions, including nurses, teachers and civil servants, have a right to go on strike, according to a YouGov poll. However, the same poll shows a growing number think that there should be more restrictions on the right to strike.
4 Day Week: More than 100 UK companies and organisations have become permanently accredited four-day working week employers since the Covid pandemic, The 4 Day Week Campaign says.
Work guarantee makes people happier: A pilot project in an Austrian town where all residents were guaranteed work has eliminated long-term unemployment there, the Independent reports. The project, designed by Oxford University economists, left participants happier, more financially secure and more involved in their community.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Death at incinerator: An investigation has been opened after a 50-year-old man died in a collision with a heavy goods vehicle at Edmonton incinerator in London, The Camden New Journal reports.
Explosion fine: Gateshead's International Paint plant has been fined £800,000 after an explosion left a worker scarred, partially blinded and suffered hearing damage, the BBC reports.
MODERN SLAVERY
Migrant farm workers trapped in debt bondage: The government’s Director of Labour Market Enforcement, Margaret Beels, has told MPs that many migrant workers coming to work on UK farms are trapped in debt bondage, the Shropshire Star reports. Her full testimony can be found here.
Migrant workers seek diplomatic help: More than 200 Indonesian fruit pickers have sought diplomatic help since July, after facing difficulties working in Britain this season, the Guardian reports.
WINS
Let off some steam: More than 75 workers at the GE Steam plant in Rugby have each won a series of one-off payments worth a total of £15,600 after taking intermittent strike action since April, Unite says.
Polyflor deal: Polyflor workers have called off their dispute after agreeing a 9% pay increase for next year and two one-off payments of £660, GMB says.
Backpay win: Queen Mary University cleaner, porter and library staff have recovered thousands of pounds in backpay, the university’s Unison branch says. The amounts received by each worker ranged from a few pounds to more than a thousand, it says.
RSA staff recognised: Staff at the Royal Society of the Arts have overwhelmingly voted to be recognised by the IWGB, following a bitter anti-union campaign by the management team led by Andy Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England and current government levelling-up adviser, the Guardian reports.
LEGAL
Council discrimination: An employment tribunal has ordered Rotherham Council to pay an employee £4,000 after finding that comments from its former assistant chief executive amounted to disability-related harassment, The Sheffield Star reports.
WHAT’S COMING UP
Strikes and protests:
Ongoing: Dundee university workers strike
Ongoing: Continuous strike at Arriva Northumberland
Ongoing: Quorn continuous strike action
Ongoing: Northern Ireland Housing Executive strike
Ongoing: Continuous strike at Jacob’s Cream Crackers factory in Aintree
5 - 24 December (every Monday Wednesday and Friday): Arrow XL strike
5 - 10 December: Wirral refuse workers strike
5 - 10, 12 - 16 December: Mizkan workers strike in Rochdale
5 November - 13 December: Welwyn and Hatfield council grounds staff strike
5, 9 - 12 December: Courts staff strike in England and Wales
5 - 11 December: Co-op Funeralcare strike
5 - 18 December: Shelter workers on strike
6, 7, 15 December: Furness College strike
6 -7, 16 - 17, 22 - 25 December, 3 - 4, 6 -7 January: National Highways strike
7, 15 December: Unison and Unite members strike at universities
7, 14, 21 December and 4 January: Thomas Swan strike in Durham
7 December: Strike at Imperial Chemical in Suffolk
7 December: GMB members start strike at Fawley oil refinery
7, 8 December: NASUWT members strike in Scotland
8 - 9, 12 -19, 19 - 21 December: Fawley oil refinery strike in Hampshire
8 - 9 December: Petrofac strikes
9, 10, 16 and 17 December: Abellio bus strike in London
9 - 24 December (not continuous & different departments): Strike action at Royal Mail
8 - 9 December, 10 - 12 January: Truro & Penwith College staff on strike
10 - 17 December: Wiltshire parking wardens strike
10, 11, 17, 18, 23, 24 & 26 December: Harrods security officers strike
12 – 15 December & 12 – 18 January: Baker Hughes strike in Newcastle
12 - 26 December: HGS workers strike at the Disclosure and Barring Service
13 - 14 December: Barnet and Southgate College strike
13 December - 10 January (not continuous) : DVSA strikes
13 December - 13 January (not continuous): Rural Payments Agency strikes
13, 14, 16 & 17 December, 3,4,6 & 7 January: RMT rail strikes
13, 14, 16 & 17 December: TSSA rail strikes
15, 20 December: RCN nurses strike
16 - 18 December: Menzies Heathrow strike
16, 18, 22 & 23 December: Eurostar security strike
22, 23, & 31 December: Rail cleaners strike
10 - 11 January, 16 January - 6 February: EIS Schools strike in Scotland
Ballots:
1 - 22 December: TSSA reballot of Network Rail staff
5 December - 23 January: FBU strike ballot
12 December: Royal College of Midwives ballot in England and Wales concludes
14 December - 20 January: HCSA ballot of junior doctors
9 January: NASUWT strike ballot in England and Wales concludes
9 January: Start of BMA strike ballot
13 January: NEU ballot of 300,000 teachers and support staff concludes
Events:
6 December: Nae Pasaran - film screening and CWU strike fundraiser in Salford
13 December: UK monthly unemployment figures
14 December: UK inflation statistics
FEEDBACK
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