Strike!

[Miss-Shelf]

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.

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

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?

at my post 1992 HEI theres not enough UCU members to pull this off. Some ex teachers in initial teacher education remain in NEU to avoid strike action. Others join HE from other industries that arent unionised and dont think about joining UCU

UCU membership is very different across different HEI's

 

[Serge Forward]

Aye, density is variable. Where I work it's at a reasonable level, and while the union can cause some serious inconvenience, it's still in no position to shut the whole place down.

 

[hitmouse]

Statement from the joint HE unions here, sounds like a fucking shambles:

 

[Lord Camomile]

Statement from the joint HE unions here, sounds like a fucking shambles:

Lil' bit, aye.

That said, genuinely still not sure how much better it could be/we should expect.

I always try to recognise the reality of a given situation and manage my expectations accordingly, and in this case I feel like I simply don't have enough knowledge/understanding to make a convincing judgement.

It's a slightly odd set-up, really, with five different unions with different memberships, perspectives, priorities, etc. Feels like that inherently increases the shambles potential.

But... instinctively can't help feeling that surely it's not unreasonable to want it to be better than this?

Ah well, we keep going, doing what we can, when we can.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Ah well, we keep going, doing what we can, when we can.

In fact, on that note... Personally, one thing I do think should get more focus is pressuring other motivations of employers. They've clearly decided they can cope with a certain amount of striking without giving us too much. Ok, so what else do they care about that will force their hand more?

Students, students parents, powerful alumni, funding orgs, academic tables, public image...? Whatever it is, feels like we can do more in those arenas, and largely free of both the legal restrictions and financial sacrifice of industrial action.

 

[belboid]

Obviously, I will always support strikes no matter what the ‘inconvenience’ - but this case does almost make that principle wobble -

https://www.wigantoday.net/news/people/strikes-see-wigans-world-pie-eating-championships-shelved-until-the-new-year-3953224?

 

[Ming]

I love Mick Lynch;

 

[AmateurAgitator]

I love Mick Lynch;

I'm sure he probably means well and its good he's talking about inequality and increasing authoritarianism. But its all so limited. It doesn't go far enough. He doesn't talk about worker's ownership of their workplaces and communities and not once is the real, underlying problem (capitalism) mentioned. He just wants a fairer, nicer version of capitalism that doesn't exist. The problem with the other parties isn't that they're not effective opposition, its that they're all part of the bourgeois system and are therefore just as much our enemies as the tories. And this is all too dependent on appeals to those in power. Things need to go further and need to be more militant. But I guess you're not going to get that with a centre-left bureaucrat.

 

[hitmouse]

Lil' bit, aye.

That said, genuinely still not sure how much better it could be/we should expect.

I always try to recognise the reality of a given situation and manage my expectations accordingly, and in this case I feel like I simply don't have enough knowledge/understanding to make a convincing judgement.

It's a slightly odd set-up, really, with five different unions with different memberships, perspectives, priorities, etc. Feels like that inherently increases the shambles potential.

But... instinctively can't help feeling that surely it's not unreasonable to want it to be better than this?

Ah well, we keep going, doing what we can, when we can.

Oh yeah, I wasn't even really slagging off the unions when I said that, UCEA posting something as a "joint statement" when it hadn't actually been agreed is a bit farcical but that's not not really something the unions can be blamed for. Also I suppose worth keeping in mind that even the individual unions aren't necessarily unified bodies, as we're seeing with the current UCU thing.

 

[hitmouse]

Obviously, I will always support strikes no matter what the ‘inconvenience’ - but this case does almost make that principle wobble -

https://www.wigantoday.net/news/people/strikes-see-wigans-world-pie-eating-championships-shelved-until-the-new-year-3953224?

Fantastic quotes in that story:
"We're now consulting with the elite competitors to try to find a slot in a crowded January 2023 calendar that doesn't clash with kebab night, Chippy lunch day, or times when Asda discounts the 'best before' sandwiches and pasties,” said organiser and Piemaster Tony Callaghan.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Obviously, I will always support strikes no matter what the ‘inconvenience’ - but this case does almost make that principle wobble -

https://www.wigantoday.net/news/people/strikes-see-wigans-world-pie-eating-championships-shelved-until-the-new-year-3953224?

Paul Mason will be delighted at the unintended blow the strikes have struck to Wigan..the town with no seats or women or migrants...or pies now.

 

[Sue]

Beat this headline... (You've got to love local papers.)

Man with parrot joins staff rally outside Homerton Hospital

A rally to show support for striking nurses took place at Homerton Hospital despite staff not participating in the national walkout.

www.hackneygazette.co.uk

(I'd have popped along if I'd known this was on.)

 

[hitmouse]

Paul Mason will be delighted at the unintended blow the strikes have struck to Wigan..the town with no seats or women or migrants...or pies now.

I was going to say, the pictures of the event do not appear to show anyone sitting down, but there might be some women there, so mixed evidence for Mason's theories:

(eta: can't make the pictures work for some reason, but easy enough to look them up yourself if you're interested)

 

[belboid]

I am intrigued as to how I could become an 'elite competitor' - I reckon if they did it in different categories according to was it size, I'd be a world champ.

My favourite line regards the rules for the proper size of pie 'a pie wall angle from base to top of between zero and 15 degrees."

 

[hitmouse]

For fans of "the BBC desperately trying to get members of the public to slag off strikers and getting slapped down", here's a very solid example of the genre:

 

[Bingoman]

More strikes this time with Amazon

Amazon staff vote to strike at Coventry warehouse in UK first | ITV News

Amazon workers have voted to go on strike for the first time ever in the UK - after a ballot among hundreds of staff in the company's warehouse in Coventry. | ITV National News

www.itv.com

 

[hitmouse]

Will be interesting to see how the GMB involvement affects this one, since I reckon there's both positives and negatives to them getting a formal union involved there. Best of luck to them, anyway!

 

[BristolEcho]

For fans of "the BBC desperately trying to get members of the public to slag off strikers and getting slapped down", here's a very solid example of the genre:

BBC running stories the other day "How will the strikes affect your plans?" Transparent.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

Royal Mail now asking staff if family and friends would like to come in and help clear the back log!

I'm not expecting many if any takers.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

p.s. there is an unintentionally funny article in the Telegraph about it.

 

[JimW]

Beat this headline... (You've got to love local papers.)

Man with parrot joins staff rally outside Homerton Hospital

A rally to show support for striking nurses took place at Homerton Hospital despite staff not participating in the national walkout.

www.hackneygazette.co.uk

(I'd have popped along if I'd known this was on.)

Good letter in our local, should check out who these independents are, usually hear that in local government and think shy Tories but looks like maybe Corbynistas here. one's the new councillor for my folks' ward: Letter to the Editor: why it's right to strike | Stroud Times

 

[petee]

For fans of "the BBC desperately trying to get members of the public to slag off strikers and getting slapped down", here's a very solid example of the genre:

ages ago during the last transit strike here fox and other local media were out trying to get people to moan about their inconveniences but again and again they got "I understand why they need to do th-" and the mike got pulled away.

 

[hitmouse]

Good letter in our local, should check out who these independents are, usually hear that in local government and think shy Tories but looks like maybe Corbynistas here. one's the new councillor for my folks' ward: Letter to the Editor: why it's right to strike | Stroud Times

Looks like this is their twitter:

https://twitter.com/sdcommunityind

Links to this impressively minimalist website:

Stroud District Community Independents

We are a group of independent councillors and community leaders across Stroud District, who are here to put people before politics.

communityindependents.org

 

[JimW]

...

Links to this impressively minimalist website:

Stroud District Community Independents

We are a group of independent councillors and community leaders across Stroud District, who are here to put people before politics.

communityindependents.org

Worryingly yellow!

 

[cesare]

Good news from the Shelter workers. They are back at work having secured 7% increase (a compound one ie 4% on top of the existing 3%) plus £1250 in non-consolidated lump sums.

They are saying many thanks for the support and solidarity

 

[teqniq]

meanwhile in England....

 

[Louis MacNeice]

To be clear re. the RM family and friends thing; it is aimed at managers and non operational staff (eg. payroll and accounts). Their family and friends will be paid £18 per hour; 50% more than posties. And apparently they will be fully trained; it will be very interesting to see how they arrange for their driver assessments. Or maybe it's all just more desperate provocative twaddle.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[LDC]

Our hospital is full of well-meaning but a bit useless volunteers now, trying to 'help' the Trust through this 'difficult period'.

 

[hitmouse]

In mildly entertaining sectariana news, the WSWS turned up at my local RMT picket line today, prompting responses of "oh, for fuck's sake, they're here" from one rail striker and "to be fair, we've had three days now without them showing up, that's pretty good going" from another.
In less entertaining news, I can't verify the accuracy of any of this, but have been told that some rail cleaners have been prevented from joining this round of strike action, because they were contracted out to Mitie, balloted and got a mandate against Mitie, and then suddenly had their contracts transferred to a new company and have been told they don't have a valid legal dispute with the new company. I didn't catch the name of the new company or what line all this was happening on, and don't know enough law to be able to say whether that's binding or not, but does sound sadly plausible.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Bloody hell.

Utterly shifty if true, but also wonder just how Mitie felt/were compensated in all of that

 

[andysays]

Beat this headline... (You've got to love local papers.)

Man with parrot joins staff rally outside Homerton Hospital

A rally to show support for striking nurses took place at Homerton Hospital despite staff not participating in the national walkout.

www.hackneygazette.co.uk

(I'd have popped along if I'd known this was on.)

I'm pretty sure that's the same man and parrot I've seen a few times down the lower end of Kingsland Road.

Not seem them recently, so glad they're still both OK.