by New Worker correspondent
2022 saw the greatest number of working days lost (2.47 million) since 1989 when 4.13 million took to the picket lines. The figures for 2023 are, of course, still to be totted up, but it is clear that industrial action has not slowed down. The public sector and the transport sector, particularly the NHS and railways have seen most of the action.
Unfortunately this action has not done much to boost union membership figures which remain stubbornly low a miserable 22.3 per cent of the workforce, a record low. It has been a comparatively small number of traditionally well organised workers who have taken the lead.
A notable feature of 2023 was that many groups of workers not normally associated with industrial militancy took to the picket lines. Under the British Medical Association’s leadership even senior NHS consultants took strike action, eventually securing a higher pay rise than cleaners and nurses, a matter about which we will not have heard the last of.
For the first time in history Anglican clergy, belonging to the Church of England Clergy & Employee Advocates (CEECA), part of Unite the union’s Faith Workers Branch submitted a formal pay claim which could come out of Church Commissioners’ £10.3 billion bank account.
Among the smaller groups of workers taking strike action were Scottish lighthouse keepers and the Westminster traffic wardens were unfortunately unable to stick a parking ticket on the King’s gilded coach when it was parked outside Westminster Abbey for his crowning.
New faces
There were only a few new faces on the trade union scene this year. The main one was Paul Nowak, the Trades Union Congress General Secretary who made much of the fact that he began with stacking shelves in Asda at the age of 17, but failed to mention he has been a Congress House bureaucrat for the great bulk of his working life, latterly as Deputy GS. His inaugural speech naturally deplored low pay and included the rousing message that: “ministers, unions and employers should work together on a proper industrial strategy, delivering good green jobs, training and skills across the country”, thus demonstrating the TUC’s deep attachment to class collaboration.
Another newcomer was at the Transport and Salaries Staff Association (TSSA) which elected Maryam Eslamdoust as the new General Secretary after the incumbent was found not to have behaved as a proper gentleman should. The election inspired a whole 13.5 per cent of the 17,324 strong membership to vote. She triumphed with 46.6 per cent of the vote against two rivals.
In contrast the main teachers’ union Daniel Kebede was overwhelmingly elected General Secretary, the first since the merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teacher and Lecturers in 2017. Out of 445,601 members 28,636 voted for him and 12,918 for his opponent.
Only last week Fran Heathcote was elected General Secretary of PCS, the main civil service union, succeeding Mark Serwotka who will be retiring next month after being in office since 2000. At the same time incumbent Assistant GS John Moloney was re-elected. Ms Heathcote ran on the Democracy Alliance ticket – the platform for the bureaucrats, former Trotskyists and revisionists that backed Serwotrka and has dominated PCS politics for decades – while Moloney stood for the still formally Trotskyist Broad Left Network – an unholy alliance of supporters of the Alliance of Workers Liberty and the Socialist Party. The Democracy Alliance retained their hold on the general secretaryship and Moloney was re-elected AGS. So a no change there. Out of 173,844 members only 20,058 or 11.5 per cent bothered to vote. This went 10,340 to 9,557 in favour of the winning General Secretary and a more impressive 11,705 to 8,152 for the “left opposition” AGS. From these figures it appears that no-one other than activists bothered to vote.
Immediately afterwards at the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) a new General Secretary took control of the cockpit. Completing a trio of unions appointing a woman GS for the first time in its history, she secured 100 per cent of the votes in contest that had a zero per cent turnout as it was uncontested. Deplorably, she is not actually a pilot, but a career union bureaucrat who has been promoted from the senior civil servants’ union, the FDA.
trains and boats and planes
Transport services were the main battleground throughout the year, particularly on the railways.
Drivers union ASLEF was involved in industrial action which caused widespread disruption by talking short strikes at different companies and different times to maximise disruption. It also imposed a number of overtime bans. This was particularly effective as the train operating companies depend heavily on overtime rather than pay to train and employ sufficient numbers of drivers. ASLEF complained that the Government took a “hands off” approach when it declined to pressure employers to settle. Some claim the Government wants industrial action to drag on so as to deplete union funds. Early in the year Aslef rejected what appeared tempting offers because it would lead to the loss of hard won terms and conditions. The latest ballot means that drivers have a mandate for another round of strikes in this unresolved battle.
There was a notable success on the railways when the rail unions, united for once, successfully fought off plans to close nearly all ticket offices in England, partly as result of securing 750,000 hostile respondents to the official consultation.
On the London Underground a long struggle saw outsourced cleaners winning the same right to free transport as direct employees, however the RMT battle to have them taken back into direct employment has not yet borne fruit, despite the Mayor of London expressing agreement at least in theory. Other battles on behalf of railway cleaners do not seem to be so successful, but RMT continues the difficult battle to organise them. Catering workers on the railways also secured some decent pays rises thanks to RMT campaigns.
Strikes, and the threat of them, at various bus companies up and down the country were regular event. Only last week 350 London Transit workers, drivers and engineers alike, rejected a 6.8 per cent pay rise resulting them taking strike action which disrupted west London services. Earlier, in February, workers at the neighbouring Abellio service needed 20 days of strike action to £18 an hour for experienced drivers
Many bus drivers were aggrieved at discrepancies between different companies on such dispute was at Newcastle where Go North East drivers average wage was is £12.83 per hour, while drivers on the other side of England at Go North West earn £15.53 per hour.
During and shortly after the pandemic many bus drivers left the industry in favour of the expanded home delivery services from supermarkets which resulted in many bus companies raising wages to keep drivers, but the threat of strikes by organised workers is still required. One wonders why the powerful Unite does not launch a nationwide pay campaign and put more effort into campaigning for renationalisation. Not all battles were as successful as in the Midlands where Unite won pay rises of between 20 per cent and 25.8 per cent for 100 Trent Barton bus engineers across five sites in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.
In the shipping industry there was no major issue such as the mass sacking of workers by P&O. Government promises to legislate against such acts have predictably proven worthless. However the ferry between the Isle of Man and Liverpool saw a dispute between the officer’s union Nautilus and bosses over their demands they spend at least 76 extra days per year on-board rather than with their families.
Road transport saw a number of disputes. The mere threat of strike action can be very effective as because of just-in-time working disruption can immediate effect in companies not handling perishables.
For instance in May 150 tanker drivers at Fuel Transport & Logistics who service the supermarket chain Morrisons’ petrol stations secured a 13.5 per cent increase for 2022, a 10.5 per cent increase for 2023 and a guarantee that next year all drivers’ salaries will increase to an impressive £65,000 per annum.
The summer holiday season was used by unions in the aviation industry to put pressure in employers. Pilots at Virgin Atlantic sought a reduction in their hours which had been recently increased, resulting in increased pilot fatigue.
Around the same time workers at various airports ranging from refuelling drivers and Gatwick baggage handlers threatened action. British Airways staff, excluding pilots and management won a 13.1 pay rise over an 18-month period which was some compensation for pandemic cuts.
Sick of Work
The NHS was another major battleground with ambulance workers in many parts of England starting the ball rolling with strikes in late January. In April and May the Royal College of Nursing took strike action which for the first time included nurses in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards. Junior doctors and consultants later joined in, with many using the threat of emigration to Australia as a bargaining tool. Some doctors claimed that as a result of their long hours they were paid less than coffee makers at Starbucks. It was interesting that it was RCN members, rather than one of the more militant health unions that rejected the initial unsatisfactory five per cent offer recommended by union officials.
Apart from the salary issue medics have suffered from long term neoliberal policies such as having to pay off large student loans and the loss of proper catering in hospitals, and the ending of hospital accommodation.
One welcome victory was that that the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where 670 caterers, cleaners, porters, caterers and other domestic services were brought back in-house, but there are many similar battles which are still to be won.
While doctors in England had to take strike action, an overwhelmingly strike vote in Scotland forced the SNP to come up with a better offer before they actually downed stethoscopes.
Tough Battles
While there have been no postal strikes this year all is not well at Royal Mail which is hoping to abandon its universal service obligation and concentrate on profitable parcel delivery. This will drastically impact on workers conditions with the CEO openly supporting the model of hiring “self-employed” drivers who would supply their own vans to spare Royal Mail the expense.
In mid-February CWU called off a further strike, despite a 96 per cent mandate after Royal Mail bosses took further legal action against the union. By then the pay offer had been marginally improved to nine per cent over 18 months. That almost 200 CWU reps were suspended for union activity showed how brutal Royal Mail management were.
However the prize for the most difficult battle probably goes to the workers at the Amazon warehouse in Coventry where they have taken on the notoriously anti trade union firm.
Here GMB secured recognition at the predatory retailer, itself a remarkable achievement. Strikes later took place including one over the “Black Friday” weekend last month. The demand was for a 43 per cent increase from £10.50 to £15.00 an hour, which is much more that the 50 pence an hour offered by Amazon whose owner recently took delivery of a $500 million yacht. The necessity for a union presence at Amazon was confirmed when Tribune reported that in order to get its accident figures down Amazon had resorted to hiring ambulances to ferry overworked workers to hospital by taxi rather than call ambulances which appear in official statistics.
It is not only Amazon that rejected Victorian Master and Servant style industrial relations in favour a more traditional lord and serf relationships. Another hi-tech firm Google laid off 10,000 workers globally including hundreds in London who according to Unite broke redundancy laws and refuses to meet their Unite representatives. Workers with disabilities had to get doctors notes simply to have a fellow worker attend their meetings and even in these cases union representation is forbidden.
Classroom Wars
From nursery schools to universities workers were often found on the picket line. Perhaps the major triumph was that by the University and College Union which won a long running battle to reverse the potential loss of £10,000 year from their pensions. Their strike actions were often delayed by the failure of the union to whip up sufficient numbers to vote in strike ballots. Even well paid professors grumble about the astronomical salaries collected by Chancellors and Vice-Principals. Scottish school teachers also secured a decent pay rise of ten per cent which the SNP denied they could afford. Targeting their action in ministerial constituencies brought rapid results.
Bad Laws
On the legislative front the Strikes Minimum Level of Service Act came into being which would effectively render industrial action at best ineffective and at worst illegal. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner called measure the “Conservative sacking nurses Bill”, but that was about the end of Labour’s opposition. Despite being passed in July it was only in December that the TUC held a special congress to make rousing speeches against it. It was an achievement for the Tories to unite the most traditionally right wing unions with the usual suspects. Even a Tory supporter of the measure, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg warned it was so badly written that it will be subject to legal challenges unless it is drastically amended by the House of Lords.
q Another move by the Government was a new regulations allowing agency workers to be hired in disputes to replace striking workers. This was condemned even by employment agencies as being unworkable.
And finally...
---it is only for lack of space that we have little to say about disputes in other areas such as local and central government, but in both these areas there has been much to write about. The FDA, representing senior civil servants, used the threat of strike action to secure a decent pay offer and a promise of no compulsory redundancies in the ranks of the Sir Humphreys.
In what remains of British industry there were disputes in the North Sea Oil and Gas industry where workers have definitely not been benefiting from the increase in oil and gas prices. At the Petrofac Facilities Management Limited workers were expected to switch from a 7 to 14 day rota, double the industry norm which would see rig workers losing £6,000 a year.
Struggles to save the last British steel mills in South Wales and Scunthorpe are under way. Owners plan to close down existing plants on environmental grounds and replace them with electric arc furnaces which will need only a fraction of the existing workforce. However they can only handle recycled steel materials which are cannot produce top quality steel for construction purposes. What 2024 holds remains to be seen, but there are no shortage of disputes...
