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Strike!

Lord Camomile said:
Would it be useful to have a site, sort of like the TfL's engineering works page, that tells you what service(s) are unavailable due to strike that day?
Click to expand...

from a purely (rail) travel information perspective, national rail enquiries usually show a summary of all disruptions including strikes, and TFL have got a page for strike related news.

and there's strike map UK (not just transport sector)
 
ska invita said:
Someone was telling me recently many newspapers used to have an "industrial" section with the latest disputes, strikes and other labour news, a section presumably slowly made redundant post-Thatcher....might be time for those to come back now the end of history has ended
Click to expand...
They certainly had industrial correspondents as did the BBC and ITV and they were seen as some of the most important journalists around. TUC conference was live on BBC2. I was born in 1962 and the 1970s were very heaven to be alive....I might have over egged the pudding there.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
 
teqniq said:
It's the busiest and largest container port in the UK. If they continue to strike it will surely have an effect on the economy sooner or later? You'd think that the management would be willing to talk but no.... It would be interesting to know who are actually the main beneficiaries of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.

ITF delegation joins Felixstowe picket line as managers refuse to negotiate | ITF Global

Dockers on the picket line at the Port of Felixstowe, the UK’s largest container terminal, told a delegation from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) that management is offering a
www.itfglobal.org www.itfglobal.org

View attachment 339818
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The ultimate owners are the Li banking clan, based out of Hong Kong.

www.forbes.com

Li Ka-shing

#38 Li Ka-shing on the 2024 Billionaires - Nicknamed Superman, Li Ka-shing is revered as one of the most influential businessmen in Asia. Li retired as
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Louis MacNeice said:
They certainly had industrial correspondents as did the BBC and ITV and they were seen as some of the most important journalists around. TUC conference was live on BBC2. I was born in 1962 and the 1970s were very heaven to be alive....I might have over egged the pudding there.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
Click to expand...
Haller wrote a book about it.

www.urban75.net

Crisis? What Crisis? Urbanite writes damn fine book!

I've just been reading Haller's new book Crisis? What Crisis? and it's great :cool: Tis a history of Britain in the 1970s - brilliantly observed and very funny. Here be a trailer for it on youtube and here's a review of the book by Francis Wheen Francis Wheen [Haller] may be an...
www.urban75.net www.urban75.net
Rob Ray said:
The ultimate owners are the Li banking clan, based out of Hong Kong.

www.forbes.com

Li Ka-shing

#38 Li Ka-shing on the 2024 Billionaires - Nicknamed Superman, Li Ka-shing is revered as one of the most influential businessmen in Asia. Li retired as
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
Click to expand...
Any ally of the PRC since they helped capture the kidnapper of his son.

 
Most national papers had industrial correspondents btw (as did many of the prominent regionals) but they all went the way of the dodo in the 90s/early 2000s apart from at the Mirror, Morning Star and the PA newswire. The decline reflecting both the gutting of expensive senior roles and the post-Wapping period of "unions aren't important any more".
 
MickiQ said:
Nope it is, checked on strikemap and today is the first day of a two day strike. I came back a separate route so I don't know if there were pickets later.Granted you don't actually need to picket a telephone exchange since whilst telecom engineer is a more interchangeable skillset than train driver, people with those skills are usually in well paid jobs rather than working for agencies.
Click to expand...
Ok. Sorry i thought you were talking about post strikes not bt.
 
teqniq said:
:)
Click to expand...

Red Funnel sounds like the kind of phrase that would have a horrific definition on urbandictionary.
MickiQ said:
Nope it is, checked on strikemap and today is the first day of a two day strike. I came back a separate route so I don't know if there were pickets later.Granted you don't actually need to picket a telephone exchange since whilst telecom engineer is a more interchangeable skillset than train driver, people with those skills are usually in well paid jobs rather than working for agencies.
Click to expand...
Huh, I went past a BT office yesterday and couldn't see any pickets but thought maybe that was due to me leaving it a bit too late in the morning (bit past 10ish). Having said that, I went to say hi to my local posties this morning and then almost gave up and went home before realising that they were picketing the staff entrance round the back rather than the customer entrance at the front, so could be something like that?
Rob Ray said:
The ultimate owners are the Li banking clan, based out of Hong Kong.
Click to expand...
Lol, for a second I got mixed up and read this as being part of the Morning Star/Newsline line of chat.
 
Results from the Unison HE ballot are now out, sort of, there doesn't seem to be an actual article with a list of the branches that got over the line, but it's confirmed that there's 22 of them:


Also saying they've just won outsourced staff at City University the same T&Cs as directly employed staff (and I think this is them actually having won it, not claiming responsibility for another union's work):


The Week in Work is still very good for general roundups:
theweekinwork.substack.com

Autumn of anger - 44% pay rise for hospitality workers - Inflation to keep rising

22 - 28 August 2022
theweekinwork.substack.com theweekinwork.substack.com

Notes From Below have published a pair of reports from striking posties:
notesfrombelow.org

Strike Report From a Postal Worker #1

by Anonymous postal worker // A first report from a postal worker on the on-going strike action by CWU members.
notesfrombelow.org notesfrombelow.org
notesfrombelow.org

Strike Report From A Postal Worker #2

by Anonymous postal worker // A second report from a postal worker on the on-going strike activity by CWU members.
notesfrombelow.org notesfrombelow.org
 
And yeah, my understanding is that the branches that didn't get over the line will now be reballoting, hopefully more-or-less on the same timescale as the UCU ballot that's about to start, may see something from the 18/22 before then though.
Oh, here's the official statement from Unison - 17 in England, 1 in NI, 4 in Scotland apparently:
www.unison.org.uk

University staff vote to strike over ‘ludicrously low’ pay rise | News, Press release | News | UNISON National

Managers must put people before profits and pay staff proper, fair wages
www.unison.org.uk www.unison.org.uk
Staff at the following universities have voted to strike: Manchester Metro University, Leeds Beckett University, Birkbeck (University of London), Liverpool John Moores University, City (University of London), Liverpool Hope University, King’s College London, University of Brighton, University of the West of England, London South Bank University, Bath Spa University, University of Leeds, University of Gloucestershire, University of Bristol, Royal Northern College Of Music, SOAS (University of London), University of Winchester, St Mary’s University College (Belfast), Edinburgh Napier University, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Glasgow and Robert Gordon University.
Click to expand...
 
Will be interesting to see how things go now that GMB seems to be in there in an official role - obviously more co-ordination between sites will be a good thing, but also means that there's a legal structure for Amazon to put the squeeze on that wasn't there before.
 
More in Liverpool

Today (Monday) PCS members working for Hinduja Global Solutions in Liverpool are starting another 6 days of strike action over pay and conditions.

The workers, employed by HGS to run the contact centre and back-office functions of the government’s Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) are taking their second wave of strike action until September 10.

HGS has failed to improve on its 3.25% pay offer. For our members it is not just a desire to get more money, but it is a necessity in order to pay increasing bills. So, we have no alternative than to take strike action again.

HGS owner Srichand Parmanand Hinduja is the richest person in the country, with a personal wealth of more than £24.5bn, so he can afford to pay his staff a decent rise to help them through the cost-of-living crisis. Until he does, our members will continue to take strike action against his company.

As PCS prepares for a civil service wide strike ballot on pay it’s important members across the PCS Home Office group come together to show support for each other.

We are asking members across the group to take a simple action by signing the megaphone petition to tell the CEO Adam Foster to get round the table with PCS with a better offer.
 
No apologies for the long post I need to get this off my chest because everytime I hear about the need for Royal Mail 'modernisation' none of the detail is explained.

So just to make this as clear as possible Royal Mail's 'modernisation' requires the following in exchange for an extra 1.5%:

1. Removal of pay supplements/allowances. For me this would see a gross reduction of about 8% on my basic pay.

2. Imposition of compulsory Sunday working, rendering Sunday as just another working day. This would impact significantly on overtime payments and rest day patterns. Sunday working is already agreed on a voluntary basis.

3. Removal of sick pay entitlement after 7 days absence; after that £99 per week statutory sick pay only. As well as being a massive reduction in income this would also be a very real material incentive for people to come to work when they are injured, unwell and infectious.

4. Imposition of seasonal hours contracts under which weekly hours could be changed every two weeks. Currently hours do change but in agreement with staff members. This could have a massive impact on colleagues with caring responsibilities for children, partners and elderly relatives.

5. Increase in basic full time hours from the current target of 35pw to 40pw. Again this has massive implications for overtime payments and work/life balance. It would also affect hhose seeking to move from part time to full time contracts or moving offices; i.e they could be required to sign the new 40 hour 7 day a week contracts.

There is another possible 2% available to those staff who meet some as yet unspecified productivity targets. This is not a pay increase for all (e.g. an increase in the basic hourly rate). It is to be a one off payment, not consolidated into basic pay and up for review with regard to amount and targets to be met every year.

Not modernisation but a huge attack on terms and conditions across the board and all in exchange for an actual pay cut!

Not so cheers - Louis MacNeice
 
Louis MacNeice said:
No apologies for the long post I need to get this off my chest because everytime I hear about the need for Royal Mail 'modernisation' none of the detail is explained.

So just to make this as clear as possible Royal Mail's 'modernisation' requires the following in exchange for an extra 1.5%:

1. Removal of pay supplements/allowances. For me this would see a gross reduction of about 8% on my basic pay.

2. Imposition of compulsory Sunday working, rendering Sunday as just another working day. This would impact significantly on overtime payments and rest day patterns. Sunday working is already agreed on a voluntary basis.

3. Removal of sick pay entitlement after 7 days absence; after that £99 per week statutory sick pay only. As well as being a massive reduction in income this would also be a very real material incentive for people to come to work when they are injured, unwell and infectious.

4. Imposition of seasonal hours contracts under which weekly hours could be changed every two weeks. Currently hours do change but in agreement with staff members. This could have a massive impact on colleagues with caring responsibilities for children, partners and elderly relatives.

5. Increase in basic full time hours from the current target of 35pw to 40pw. Again this has massive implications for overtime payments and work/life balance. It would also affect hhose seeking to move from part time to full time contracts or moving offices; i.e they could be required to sign the new 40 hour 7 day a week contracts.

There is another possible 2% available to those staff who meet some as yet unspecified productivity targets. This is not a pay increase for all (e.g. an increase in the basic hourly rate). It is to be a one off payment, not consolidated into basic pay and up for review with regard to amount and targets to be met every year.

Not modernisation but a huge attack on terms and conditions across the board and all in exchange for an actual pay cut!

Not so cheers - Louis MacNeice
Click to expand...
That's absolutely shit, Louis MacNeice . Real 'race to the bottom' stuff.
 
Louis MacNeice said:
No apologies for the long post I need to get this off my chest because everytime I hear about the need for Royal Mail 'modernisation' none of the detail is explained.

So just to make this as clear as possible Royal Mail's 'modernisation' requires the following in exchange for an extra 1.5%:

1. Removal of pay supplements/allowances. For me this would see a gross reduction of about 8% on my basic pay.

2. Imposition of compulsory Sunday working, rendering Sunday as just another working day. This would impact significantly on overtime payments and rest day patterns. Sunday working is already agreed on a voluntary basis.

3. Removal of sick pay entitlement after 7 days absence; after that £99 per week statutory sick pay only. As well as being a massive reduction in income this would also be a very real material incentive for people to come to work when they are injured, unwell and infectious.

4. Imposition of seasonal hours contracts under which weekly hours could be changed every two weeks. Currently hours do change but in agreement with staff members. This could have a massive impact on colleagues with caring responsibilities for children, partners and elderly relatives.

5. Increase in basic full time hours from the current target of 35pw to 40pw. Again this has massive implications for overtime payments and work/life balance. It would also affect hhose seeking to move from part time to full time contracts or moving offices; i.e they could be required to sign the new 40 hour 7 day a week contracts.

There is another possible 2% available to those staff who meet some as yet unspecified productivity targets. This is not a pay increase for all (e.g. an increase in the basic hourly rate). It is to be a one off payment, not consolidated into basic pay and up for review with regard to amount and targets to be met every year.

Not modernisation but a huge attack on terms and conditions across the board and all in exchange for an actual pay cut!

Not so cheers - Louis MacNeice
Click to expand...
Modernisation... so its management speak for cuts, might have guessed.

Thanks for keeping us informed
 
Strike Map and the BFAWU have now launched their new project, Organise Now:
www.organisenow.org.uk

Organise Now! Support for new worker organising

Organise Now is a new worker-led campaign for mass organising of workplaces during a period of increased militancy and a growing cost of living crisis.
www.organisenow.org.uk www.organisenow.org.uk

What is Organise Now?​

Organise Now is a collective of experienced workers from across the Trade Union and social justice movements, dedicated to, and with track records of, helping workers defend their pay and conditions - and to secure better work lives through collaborating with others.

How does it work?​

We have a support form for workers who want support and advice. After submitting the form, you will receive a call within 72 hours. We will put you in touch with an experienced organiser. They will listen to you and assist you in forming a plan on how to build change.

What can I do for Organise Now?​


Spread the word! Both on social media and out in the real world, talk about Organise Now! with your friends, colleagues and families. Encourage people to move from just talking about how dreadful problems are but that there are ways to change things and people who will help.
Click to expand...
 
Louis MacNeice said:
No apologies for the long post I need to get this off my chest because everytime I hear about the need for Royal Mail 'modernisation' none of the detail is explained.

So just to make this as clear as possible Royal Mail's 'modernisation' requires the following in exchange for an extra 1.5%:

1. Removal of pay supplements/allowances. For me this would see a gross reduction of about 8% on my basic pay.

2. Imposition of compulsory Sunday working, rendering Sunday as just another working day. This would impact significantly on overtime payments and rest day patterns. Sunday working is already agreed on a voluntary basis.

3. Removal of sick pay entitlement after 7 days absence; after that £99 per week statutory sick pay only. As well as being a massive reduction in income this would also be a very real material incentive for people to come to work when they are injured, unwell and infectious.

4. Imposition of seasonal hours contracts under which weekly hours could be changed every two weeks. Currently hours do change but in agreement with staff members. This could have a massive impact on colleagues with caring responsibilities for children, partners and elderly relatives.

5. Increase in basic full time hours from the current target of 35pw to 40pw. Again this has massive implications for overtime payments and work/life balance. It would also affect hhose seeking to move from part time to full time contracts or moving offices; i.e they could be required to sign the new 40 hour 7 day a week contracts.

There is another possible 2% available to those staff who meet some as yet unspecified productivity targets. This is not a pay increase for all (e.g. an increase in the basic hourly rate). It is to be a one off payment, not consolidated into basic pay and up for review with regard to amount and targets to be met every year.

Not modernisation but a huge attack on terms and conditions across the board and all in exchange for an actual pay cut!

Not so cheers - Louis MacNeice
Click to expand...
Kinnell it's like they want you all out on strike
 
arriva bus drivers (and other staff) out across much of the 'home counties' north and south of london today and tomorrow.

one of various articles (and one of the few that mention the various back door pay cuts accompanying the headline basic pay rate rise)

www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk

The Herts services impacted by Arriva bus strikes this week

The 310 and 331 routes will operate on 'limited' services
www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk
 
Louis MacNeice said:
No apologies for the long post I need to get this off my chest because everytime I hear about the need for Royal Mail 'modernisation' none of the detail is explained.

So just to make this as clear as possible Royal Mail's 'modernisation' requires the following in exchange for an extra 1.5%:

1. Removal of pay supplements/allowances. For me this would see a gross reduction of about 8% on my basic pay.

2. Imposition of compulsory Sunday working, rendering Sunday as just another working day. This would impact significantly on overtime payments and rest day patterns. Sunday working is already agreed on a voluntary basis.

3. Removal of sick pay entitlement after 7 days absence; after that £99 per week statutory sick pay only. As well as being a massive reduction in income this would also be a very real material incentive for people to come to work when they are injured, unwell and infectious.

4. Imposition of seasonal hours contracts under which weekly hours could be changed every two weeks. Currently hours do change but in agreement with staff members. This could have a massive impact on colleagues with caring responsibilities for children, partners and elderly relatives.

5. Increase in basic full time hours from the current target of 35pw to 40pw. Again this has massive implications for overtime payments and work/life balance. It would also affect hhose seeking to move from part time to full time contracts or moving offices; i.e they could be required to sign the new 40 hour 7 day a week contracts.

There is another possible 2% available to those staff who meet some as yet unspecified productivity targets. This is not a pay increase for all (e.g. an increase in the basic hourly rate). It is to be a one off payment, not consolidated into basic pay and up for review with regard to amount and targets to be met every year.

Not modernisation but a huge attack on terms and conditions across the board and all in exchange for an actual pay cut!

Not so cheers - Louis MacNeice
Click to expand...
if this is the sort of thing your managers spend their time thinking up i can think of some immediate and widely popular cost-cutting measures.
 
Duncan2 said:
Kinnell it's like they want you all out on strike
Click to expand...
They want rid of their universal service obligation; they are only interested in parcel delivery. So a combined strategy of under investment in the letter post, under recruitment of delivery staff and picking a fight with the CWU will see them saying the Royal Mail is broken and the only way to fix it is to sell off the parcels side and let the letter post die.

At bottom it is the same approach the government is taking to the NHS; i.e. run it so badly that it breaks, then say you have the solution...sell the money making bits to your mates and let the rest become at best a minimal residual service of last resort.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
 
Last edited:
Polyflor in Radcliffe (near Bury) have locked their workforce out after they voted to strike:
www.burytimes.co.uk

Flooring company suspends shifts after workers vote to strike over pay dispute

Workers at a flooring company in Whitefield are set to go on strike in a dispute over pay.
www.burytimes.co.uk www.burytimes.co.uk

It doesn't seem to be super well-publicised as yet, and I suppose the likelihood of there being any urbs in the M45 area who are free on Thursday daytime may be fairly slim, but the locked-out workers have apparently called a demo for Thursday morning:
 
North Sea wildcat to start tomorrow:
scaffmag.com

Offshore scaffolders plan unofficial strike in North Sea

Scaffolders and other offshore trades working in the North Sea are set to take unofficial strike action on Thursday.
scaffmag.com scaffmag.com

www.leftcom.org

North Sea Oil and Gas Fields: The Struggle Continues!

As mentioned in our recent article on wildcat strikes in the UK, back in May it was reported that over a thousand offshore oil and gas workers in the North Sea walked out across 19 rigs demanding their wages match inflation.(1) And now, according to a statement circulating across social media...
www.leftcom.org
 
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