Thursday 21 August 2008

Scotland on Strike

by Caroline Colebrook

AROUND 200,000 local government employees in Scotland took part in a 24-hour strike over pay last Wednesday, affecting refuse collection, libraries, swimming pools, day-care centres, ferry crossings and town hall services.
And joining them were around 5,000 PCS members.
They are protesting at Government attempts to impose a 2.5 per cent pay deal over the next three years. As such this strike is part of a wave of massive public sector strikes against below-inflation pay rises that is happening all around Britain.
Wednesday’s local government striking workers are members of Unison, GMB and Unite and their protest is directed at Cosla – the Scottish local government umbrella group.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Our members are taking this action very reluctantly. They care deeply about the vital services they provide and those who depend on them and we apologise for any disruption.
“However, members feel they have no choice when the employers’ offer is effectively a pay cut.”
picket lines

The strikers mounted picket lines outside several council headquarters. Union members also distributed leaflets to commuters at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station and a midday rally was held at George Square in Glasgow.
Michael Cook, speaking for Cosla, claimed the local governments could not afford above inflation pay rises. He said: “The issues are difficult and complex and need to be carefully thought through.
“However, as soon as possible, we will arrange talks with the trade unions in a bid to reach a settlement which takes account of the soaring cost of living which affects councils just as much as our workers.”
John Swinney, Finance Secretary of the Scottish Parliament, stood aloof and urged “both parties to try to resolve the dispute to ensure that there is no further interruption to public services”.
But the unions hold him responsible for failing to give the local authorities adequate funding to cover the much needed wage rises to address low pay.

angry

PCS members are angry that Scottish Ministers have imposed a two per cent pay increase on their own workforce in the Scottish Government, which is in effect a pay cut whilst inflation spirals beyond five per cent. This is a rise of only £4.20 per week for those PCS members earning £16,500 in the Scottish Government.
Since 31st July, PCS members have been participating in an overtime ban and working to rule, which, as the Scottish Parliament prepares to return from recess will begin to slow down Ministers’ abilities to deliver key priorities in the session ahead.
PCS is also now balloting its members in the Sheriff and High Courts, and the Procurator Fiscals’ Department who, if they vote to join the strike campaign later, would bring Scotland’s justice system to a halt.
Eddie Reilly, PCS Scottish Secretary hit out at Scottish Ministers: “Low paid civil servants are not the cause of inflation – they are the victims. Salmond and Swinney can’t stay in hiding for ever.
“Ministers need to face up to their responsibilities in this dispute. It seems to be the case with Scottish Ministers that when the going gets tough, the tough go into hiding.”

Thursday 14 August 2008

ACAS workers pay ballot

MORE than 630 PCS members working for the conciliation service Acas last week began a ballot for strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute over pay.
The ballot, which runs until 27th August, follows delays in settling this year’s pay and a pay remit submitted to Treasury by Acas, which the union believes will result in real term pay cuts.
This year’s pay increase was due on 1st August yet pay negotiations haven’t started.
This year’s delay follows a ten-month delay to last year’s 2007 pay increase.
PCS national officer Dave Cliff commented: “After the ten-month delay to last year’s pay rise we had an agreement that this year’s pay settlement would be paid on time.
“However Acas management have dragged their feet and not even started negotiating yet. The prospect of a repeat of last year’s delay, combined with the likelihood of a below inflation pay award has left staff feeling angry and betrayed.”

Union leaders back petition for Miami Five

BEVERLEY Naidoo, Iain Banks, Harold Pinter and Susannah York last week joined Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, joint general secretaries of the union Unite, last week called on the US government to grant family visiting rights for the Miami Five.
Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the arrest of the Miami Five – five Cubans jailed for trying to stop US-based terrorist attacks against their country and Unite is backing a campaign for justice for the imprisoned men and their families.
The campaign is particularly focused on the visiting rights for two of the wives of the prisoners, Olga Salanueva, wife of Rene Gonzalez, and Adriana PĂ©rez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez who have both been denied the right by the US authorities to even see their husbands for eight and 10 years.
To coincide with the anniversary of their arrests in Miami on 12th September 1998, British personalities, including several trade union general secretaries are adding their name to an appeal for justice for the five and their families.
Signatories include many famous names from the world of politics, law, music and arts including writers Iain Banks, Beverley Naidoo, Harold Pinter and actors Julie Christie, Susannah York and Maxine Peake.
Unite’s joint general secretaries, Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, Unison’s Dave Prentis and CWU’s Billy Hayes have also signed the petition.
The full list of signatories will be published in the national media in September and there is still time for personalities and individuals alike to add their names to this petition by contacting Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
Tony Woodley said: “The Miami Five were acting to defend their country and have paid an enormous price. They are locked up in prison thousands of miles away from their children and wives.
“Unite is giving its support to gain family visitation rights and is seeking, ultimately, the release of the Miami Five.”

Unions roll over at Labour policy forum

by Daphne Liddle

LEADERS of most of Britain’s trade unions set out for Coventry and the Labour Party national policy forum at the end of last month with a list of 130 demands for changes in policy to make the party more electable.
It was just after the disastrous Glasgow by-election; Gordon Brown’s position as Prime Minister was precarious and New Labour was deep in debt after most of its big business friends had quit to return to the Tory fold. The party was desperate to hang on to its trade union funding.
It seemed the perfect moment for the union leaders to press home their demands for policies that would be friendlier to the working class – now facing increased unemployment, home repossessions and soaring prices for basic essentials. The union leaders had met with Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband – who will be drafting Labour’s next election manifesto – to discuss their demands.
But the union leaders still managed to pull a staggering defeat from the jaws of victory.
The union leaders’ demands included implementation of the Trade Union Freedom Bill, which would have restored trade union rights taken away by the Tories in the 1980s.
They were also calling for more council housing to be built and measures to help families facing eviction because their mortgage repayments have increased beyond their ability to pay. And they were calling for a windfall tax on the exorbitant profits of the energy companies; an end to private contract cleaners in hospitals; free school meals for schoolchildren, the abolition of prescription charges and withdrawal from the illegal occupation of Iraq.
But nearly all the demands were rejected. Brown refused to change policy on the grounds that “there would be no return to the chaos and unrest of the 1970s”, though most workers would remember that as a time when terms and conditions of work were idyllic compared to today’s and we had a healthy, thriving NHS.
The Financial Times reported: “Gordon Brown was yesterday praised by business for resisting the worst union demands on policy”. It went on to brag: “Facing a list of 130 union demands, Mr Brown rejected the vast majority outright and gave little ground on the rest.”
The demand for a windfall tax on the energy company bosses was dismissed out of hand. A few days later Shell announced six monthly profits of almost £4 billion; Bp’s profits for the same period were £6.75 billion, which was a 23 per cent increase. British Gas announced that bills will be rising by 35 per cent and Centrica announced a huge payout to their shareholders following a massive £992 million profit.
The result will almost inevitably doom the country to another period of Tory rule soon. Many argue that there is little difference between New Labour and the Tories.
But the Tories, with growing confidence, are already promising significantly greater powers of surveillance for the police, a voucher system for children to buy a school place and effectively the privatisation of the education system.
The whole farrago demonstrates plainly that the bourgeois state machine of government is designed to defend the interests of the ruling class against the workers.
Unison general secretary David Prentis claimed the unions had won a loosely defined commitment to maintain some sort of public sector from New Labour. Within days Brown seemed to have forgotten that commitment. In any case such a pledge will be useless when the Tories win the next general election.