Strike!

[Lord Camomile]

Fwiw, I'm hearing that when the UCU dispute resumes in February, there is serious talk of it being all-out, can't think when the last time we had an actual all-out national strike. Although I am also hearing that their leadership is being super mysterious and secretive about their plans.

Gap in my knowledge, what's the difference between "an actual all-out national strike" and the strikes they've had so far?

Just had disappointing news that our workplace ballot did not reach a 50 percent return. Likely much affected by postal strikes.

Ahh, that sucks, really sorry to hear that

 

[moochedit]

Gap in my knowledge, what's the difference between "an actual all-out national strike" and the strikes they've had so far?


Ahh, that sucks, really sorry to hear that

i've always understood it to mean everyone strikes and stays out until their demands are met. (Unlike one day strikes).

 

[Lord Camomile]

Ah, so it's not so much "all [workers] out" but more "all [days] out"? An indefinite strike, essentially?

If that is what UCU are looking at, then blimey! Will certainly be interesting to see how that goes!

 

[ska invita]

At the moment the strikes seem somewhat ineffective.... Removal of labour isn't actually hurting employers and putting pressure on them.

As it seems to be the government who is stopping settlements pressure can only be directed at them. At best you could hope this strike wave is hurting Tory polling but that isn't clear

Indefinite strikes (I'd be surprised if that happens) would likely create a national moment of crisis which would directly pressure the government.

 

[The39thStep]

What's happening in your union/workplace ska invita regarding pay?

 

[ska invita]

What's happening in your union/workplace ska invita regarding pay?

i work in a co-op, we try and put pay up as much as possible but basically pay freeze for years now because of inflation
in a co-op everyone is the boss!
i pay subs to IWW for what its worth

 

[flypanam]

At the moment the strikes seem somewhat ineffective.... Removal of labour isn't actually hurting employers and putting pressure on them.

As it seems to be the government who is stopping settlements pressure can only be directed at them. At best you could hope this strike wave is hurting Tory polling but that isn't clear

Indefinite strikes (I'd be surprised if that happens) would likely create a national moment of crisis which would directly pressure the government.

Our strike UCU has had some positive effects, firstly the bosses are not showing a United front some have admitted that they as a group have been underpaying us for years I think that’s a big positive. Negotiations are starting over pay today with some admitting that the 3% offered doesn’t reflect the cost of living.

It may just be start but I’m happy with an all out strike. I don’t have savings but going for it is the best chance we have.

 

[ska invita]

Our strike UCU has had some positive effects, firstly the bosses are not showing a United front some have admitted that they as a group have been underpaying us for years I think that’s a big positive. Negotiations are starting over pay today with some admitting that the 3% offered doesn’t reflect the cost of living.

It may just be start but I’m happy with an all out strike. I don’t have savings but going for it is the best chance we have.

yes there have been many strike wins already - i shoudlve been clear, i was referring to trains and now NHS in which the government seems perfectly happy to scupper and ignore fall out, fall out which lands only on the public and workers themselves

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Here was the govt clapping the NHS in recent history who they now state are undeserving of a fair pay deal.

 

[The39thStep]

The highest number of strike days this year for over a decade and public support varying from 40-60% for strikers .

 

[Louis MacNeice]

Latest Royal Mail development is that now sick pay for any uncertificated sickness absence (ie. any sickness absence of seven days or less) is at the discretion of your manager! No room for discrimination, bullying or coercion there! It's also probably illegal and will be challenged through ACAS.

Cheers and see you on the picket line tomorrow - Louis MacNeice

 

[MickiQ]

Latest Royal Mail development is that now sick pay for any uncertificated sickness absence (ie. any sickness absence of seven days or less) is at the discretion of your manager! No room for discrimination, bullying or coercion there! It's also probably illegal and will be challenged through ACAS.

Cheers and see you on the picket line tomorrow - Louis MacNeice

No sick pay as in they won't pay SSP or no sick pay as in they won't pay you your regular salary? I've never received a day of SSP in my life, everywhere I have ever worked as paid someone off sick their full salary for short term sickness.
SSP is a legal requirement getting your full salary is company policy so the first is definitely illegal, the second isn't illegal though of course it might very well in your T&C's and thus breach of contract.

 

[MickiQ]

No sick pay as in they won't pay SSP or no sick pay as in they won't pay you your regular salary? I've never received a day of SSP in my life, everywhere I have ever worked as paid someone off sick their full salary for short term sickness.
SSP is a legal requirement getting your full salary is company policy so the first is definitely illegal, the second isn't illegal though of course it might very well in your T&C's and thus breach of contract.

Good luck by the way forgot add that

 

[Sue]

SSP is a legal requirement getting your full salary is company policy so the first is definitely illegal, the second isn't illegal though of course it might very well in your T&C's and thus breach of contract.

You know you're not eligible for SSP for the first three days of illness, right? (And obviously SSP at £100 a week is potentially much less than the person's earning.)

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

Your Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) - how much you get, eligibility, how to claim SSP, fit notes, disputes.

www.gov.uk

 

[MickiQ]

You know you're not eligible for SSP for the first three days of illness, right? (And obviously SSP at £100 a week is potentially much less than the person's earning.)

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

Your Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) - how much you get, eligibility, how to claim SSP, fit notes, disputes.

www.gov.uk

Oh I'm sure this is a fairly blatant attempt at intimidation just curious about how intimidating.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

No sick pay as in they won't pay SSP or no sick pay as in they won't pay you your regular salary? I've never received a day of SSP in my life, everywhere I have ever worked as paid someone off sick their full salary for short term sickness.
SSP is a legal requirement getting your full salary is company policy so the first is definitely illegal, the second isn't illegal though of course it might very well in your T&C's and thus breach of contract.

That's no pay from RM. It is not clear if they will do the necessary re. SSP or if it will go down as unauthorised absence. Either way they appear to be ripping up their contractual obligations as signed up to with every RM employee.

There is also the question of what criteria they have advised mangers to make their decisions on; it would be 'interesting' to see them.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[flypanam]

Our strike UCU has had some positive effects, firstly the bosses are not showing a United front some have admitted that they as a group have been underpaying us for years I think that’s a big positive. Negotiations are starting over pay today with some admitting that the 3% offered doesn’t reflect the cost of living.

It may just be start but I’m happy with an all out strike. I don’t have savings but going for it is the best chance we have.

Now that I’m not on a work computer, one of the biggest developments that I’ve seen in the strike is the breaking down of barriers between staff. As librarians we’ve always been ignored by teaching staff or denigrated as being difficult as regards to returns, pushing for time for info lit. Since the 24th there has been a spirit of collaboration that in my time here I’ve never seen before. And with that there are more conversations about the nature and failings of our institution. How that translates into something more radical and confrontational with the our bosses, time will tell but there is the seed of potential.

 

[muscovyduck]

Now that I’m not on a work computer, one of the biggest developments that I’ve seen in the strike is the breaking down of barriers between staff. As librarians we’ve always been ignored by teaching staff or denigrated as being difficult as regards to returns, pushing for time for info lit. Since the 24th there has been a spirit of collaboration that in my time here I’ve never seen before. And with that there are more conversations about the nature and failings of our institution. How that translates into something more radical and confrontational with the our bosses, time will tell but there is the seed of potential.

Definitely feeling this more widely - there's more solidarity flowing around and it feels like openly supporting the strikes is the majority position rather than the minority one.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Now that I’m not on a work computer, one of the biggest developments that I’ve seen in the strike is the breaking down of barriers between staff. As librarians we’ve always been ignored by teaching staff or denigrated as being difficult as regards to returns, pushing for time for info lit. Since the 24th there has been a spirit of collaboration that in my time here I’ve never seen before. And with that there are more conversations about the nature and failings of our institution. How that translates into something more radical and confrontational with the our bosses, time will tell but there is the seed of potential.

Yup, similar experience for us. Simply standing on the picket lines together and talking has helped build some connections, even if our issues/disputes aren't exactly the same, and think there's a desire at the member level to link up more in the future.

(Though I couldn't speak with any great insight to the nature of the relationship between libraries and teaching staff, it's generally some of my other colleagues who do the 'outside the library' stuff )

 

[PR1Berske]

 

[Ming]

I think Richard Madeley has gone a bit bonkers.

 

[LDC]

I think Richard Madeley has gone a bit bonkers.

I started watching that last night and had to turn it off before I threw something through a window. TBH the media across the board clearly drops any pretence of objectivity when it comes to this. Pretty much all of them are lickspittle cunts.

 

[Ming]

I started watching that last night and had to turn it off before I threw something through a window. TBH the media across the board cleaetlyu drops any pretence of objectiveity when it comes to this. Pretty much all of them are lickspittle cunts.

Totally agree. They’re not even trying to pretend they are objective. But i do think people are a bit more media savvy these days than in say the miners strike. Hopefully more people will pick up on this. Hopefully….

 

[flypanam]

 

[PR1Berske]

Aaah. She had received hundreds of "scab!" responses.

 

[Storm Fox]

I know he's not everyone's favourite, but here is Mr Pie on the Strikes.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I started watching that last night and had to turn it off before I threw something through a window. TBH the media across the board clearly drops any pretence of objectivity when it comes to this. Pretty much all of them are lickspittle cunts.

Mick Lynch was able, eventually, to provide a perfectly serious explanation for the timing of the latest strikes: that Network Rail was imposing some of the changes from this week.

I won’t be holding my breath whilst waiting for Good Morning Britain to get their CEO on to ask them why they’ve timed attacks on T&Cs to ruin Christmas etc

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Fwiw, I'm hearing that when the UCU dispute resumes in February, there is serious talk of it being all-out, can't think when the last time we had an actual all-out national strike. Although I am also hearing that their leadership is being super mysterious and secretive about their plans.

Their GS has issued a video stating that the next steps will be decided by membership consultation and discussion. This seems designed to undermine the decision of the EC to go for indefinite action from February. All played out on social media…

 

[Magnus McGinty]

There's full on ruling class attacks now with the usual Sun headline against Lynch and cunts like Madeley doing TV attacks.
Didn't that wanker get caught shoplifting once yet he has the gall to slate decent people wanting fair recompense for their work?

 

[hitmouse]

View attachment 355628

I imagine this is some kind of a carefully orchestrated PR thing that she's going along with, but I really like the idea that LNER really are just having to make their head of customer service spend all day pushing a drinks cart around.

Their GS has issued a video stating that the next steps will be decided by membership consultation and discussion. This seems designed to undermine the decision of the EC to go for indefinite action from February. All played out on social media…

Oh, looking it up there's a THE write up:

UCU split on plans to call ‘indefinite strike’ from February

Union leader Jo Grady distances herself from higher education committee decision as key pay negotiations begin

www.timeshighereducation.com

UK universities could be hit by an “indefinite strike” starting in February, but the general secretary of the University and College Union has refused to endorse the action.

Jo Grady has clashed with her own union’s higher education committee on the next steps in the long-running dispute over pay, working conditions and pensions, advocating for “blocks of action” across three months next year, instead of an all-out walkout.

Giving an update to members in a video posted on Twitter, Dr Grady said the higher education committee had decided on two courses of action in 2023, following on from the sector-wide strikes held in the autumn term.

“The first is a marking and assessment boycott and that is to begin in January. The second is in an all-out indefinite strike to begin in February,” she said.

Dr Grady told members that although she backed the boycott – and the union was in the process of serving notice to begin such an action – she did not support the idea of an indefinite strike.

She said that the union was likely to have to engage in “mass strike action well into 2023 and an all-out strike in February could not only split our membership at a time when we need unity but also play straight into the hands of an employer who wants to see us crash and burn, not build towards a victory”.

Dr Grady promised to set out an alternative strategy that would instead seek to “escalate the disputes with blocks of action in February, March and April” – something she saw as a better path to success.

She said that despite her reservations, the union was ready to call an indefinite strike, if this approach was backed by members. “If the whole union endorses this path then we will take it and throw everything at it,” she said.

The latest update from the union came as representatives – alongside colleagues from other higher education unions – sat down with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea) in the first negotiating meeting of the new pay round.

Talks have been brought forward by several months to decide on a pay rise for the sector for 2023-24 in response to concerns about the rising cost of living, while UCU is also still pushing to reopen the 2022-23 negotiations as well.

Dr Grady’s stance is likely to frustrate those on the left of the union who have been lobbying for her to up the ante to put more pressure on the employers as the negotiations take place.

Previous attempts by the union’s leadership to go push back on decisions made by the higher education committee resulted in a motion of censure against Dr Grady narrowly failing to pass at last year’s congress.

Dr Grady’s update hinted at concerns over how long the union could sustain industrial action, as well as the limited resources at its disposal, in particular the fighting fund that helps compensate academics for lost pay.

Up to 35 institutions are already understood to have threatened staff with full pay deductions if they take part in actions such as a marking boycott, and such a hard-line approach could well dampen members’ enthusiasm for taking part.

Would be interested to hear more from UCU members about what they think of all this, do people actually think they'd be able to pull an all-out strike off?