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Strike!

stethoscope said:
Unison member, so taking some more annual leave in solidarity with UCU strikers.
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Guessing you're at one of the places where the Unison branch didn't get a mandate? I think it's not too long now till the ballots will open on the 23/24 pay offer, maybe I'm stating the obvious but I'm sure your branch will very much appreciate any help publicising that ballot while it's running.
 
Well, that's anyone else who has to run a postal ballot fucked then. :mad:
Anyway, solidarity and good luck to you all!
Also, RCN stepping things up a bit:
www.rcn.org.uk

RCN announces biggest strike to date: no services will be exempt | News | Royal College of Nursing

RCN members in England will strike around the clock for 48 hours in March, with no wide-ranging derogations in place and increased strike benefit payments.
www.rcn.org.uk www.rcn.org.uk

RCN strikes will take place at 128 NHS employers in England next month, as the Prime Minister continues to ignore calls for talks on pay, leaving nursing staff in England behind.

The next strikes will run without pause for 48 hours from the morning of Wednesday 1 March to the morning of Friday 3 March with every single member in England, where there is a mandate to strike, being called to withdraw their labour. For 24-hour services, strike action will commence at the beginning of the local day shift and continue until the same time on 3 March. For services that are not 24-hour services, strike action will start at 6am on 1 March and end at the same time on 3 March.

To support members to take part in our biggest strike yet, we’re increasing the strike benefit payments that members can claim. Members will now be able to claim £80 a day for strike action taken from March. This will rise to £120 a day for members who have taken strike action for four or more days. Find out more about the strike benefit.

During previous phases of industrial action, we agreed about 5,000 exemptions at a local level with NHS hospitals, and several national derogations. However, this time there will be no wide-ranging derogations in place. Services previously ‘derogated’ will not be to the same extent. We are working directly to ensure that these services are reduced to an absolute minimum. It is always the employer’s responsibility to ensure life-preserving services, so we expect life-preserving care to be provided by members of the wider workforce and other clinical professions.
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hitmouse said:
Well, that's anyone else who has to run a postal ballot fucked then. :mad:
Anyway, solidarity and good luck to you all!
Also, RCN stepping things up a bit:
www.rcn.org.uk

RCN announces biggest strike to date: no services will be exempt | News | Royal College of Nursing

RCN members in England will strike around the clock for 48 hours in March, with no wide-ranging derogations in place and increased strike benefit payments.
www.rcn.org.uk www.rcn.org.uk
Click to expand...

Going to cause huge impact, especially as now no services will be exempted. Also BMA ballots close soon (20th iirc) and they're going for 3 days in March all out no exemptions.
 
The strike action details are as follows

RMT members working for the 14 train operating companies will take strike action on the following days:

- 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours on Thursday 16th March 2023

· 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours on Saturday 18th March 2023

· 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours on Thursday 30th March 2023

· 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours on Saturday 1st April 2023


Network Rail members will take strike action at:

02:00 hours on March 16th 2023 and 01:59 hours on March 17th 2023.


An overtime ban by Network Rail members will be in effect at the following times:

Maintenance:

· Seven days of overtime, rest day working ban and non-rostered Sunday working from 00:01 hours on Friday 17th March 2023 until 23:59 hours on Thursday 23rd March 2023

· Seven days of overtime, rest day working ban and non-rostered Sunday working from 00:01 hours on Friday 31st 2023 until 23:59 hours on Thursday 6th April 2023

· Seven days of overtime, rest day working ban and non-rostered Sunday working from 00:01 hours on Friday 14th April 2023 until 23:59 hours on Thursday 20th April 2023


Operations:

· Seven days of overtime, rest day working ban and non-rostered Sunday working from 00:01 hours on Sunday 26th March 2023 until 23:59 hours on Saturday 1st April 2023

· Seven days of overtime, rest day working ban and non-rostered Sunday working from 00:01 hours on Sunday 9th April 2023 until 23:59 hours on Saturday 15th April 2023

· Seven days of overtime and rest day working ban from 00:01 hours on Sunday 23rd April 2023 until 23:59 hours on Saturday 29th April 2023
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Just checked the NEU strike dates:

Tuesday 28 February 2023: all eligible members in the following English regions: Northern, North West, Yorkshire & The Humber.

Wednesday 1 March 2023: all eligible members in the following English regions: East Midlands, West Midlands, Eastern.

Thursday 2 March 2023: all eligible members in the following English regions: London, South East, South West.

Wednesday 15 March 2023: all eligible members in England and Wales.

Thursday 16 March 2023: all eligible members in England and Wales.

So that's (some) teachers, unis and nurses out on the 1st-2nd, then teachers and civil servants out on the 15th, and teachers, rail workers and unis out on the 16th.
Northwest NEU rally details here:
 
Without being in the room it's hard to know exactly how good/bad this decision is.

Don't trust the bosses an inch and 2018 decision to settle was a very bad mistake.

But I do agree with Jo Grady that a renewed mandate - with the possibility of a marking and assessment boycott - will put more pressure on employers than 7 days of strike action.
18 days was a lot of action to take and I know even committed members were wavering a little. And TBH I'm fucking knackered. If there really is progress then I'm not opposed to a pause, the question is whether that progress is real or not
 
Yeah, not gonna lie, from a purely selfish POV I'd be quite glad to have a two week respite from action.

But, on the more ideological side, honestly not sure how to interpret this'un. Concerningly little about base pay, but "a revised/refreshed pay spine" might do something there? Equally, could do next to nothing.

:confused:
 
Lord Camomile said:
Yeah, not gonna lie, from a purely selfish POV I'd be quite glad to have a two week respite from action.

But, on the more ideological side, honestly not sure how to interpret this'un. Concerningly little about base pay, but "a revised/refreshed pay spine" might do something there? Equally, could do next to nothing.

:confused:
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Locally our employer has already done something with the pay spine that has made a material difference to the pay of lower paid staff. If the national deal was similar plus a decent % to all grades - and crucially movement on casualisation, pay gaps, workloads and pensions then an acceptable deal might be in sight.
 
I'm really relieved to have a pause - teaching is front-loaded to the earlier part of the term and loosing 5 of those Thursdays was hard to sell to students

Although for the first time ever they expressed solidarity with the strike whilst being dismayed at the prospect of losing so much teaching

agree that using the pause to build a bigger mandate later is useful
 
Lord Camomile said:
Yeah, not gonna lie, from a purely selfish POV I'd be quite glad to have a two week respite from action.

But, on the more ideological side, honestly not sure how to interpret this'un. Concerningly little about base pay, but "a revised/refreshed pay spine" might do something there? Equally, could do next to nothing.

:confused:
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Am I right in thinking that this pause in action will go right up to the end of the UNISON mandate? We'll know more soon I suppose, but what I'd been hearing from negotiations hadn't been making me feel particularly hopeful, sounds like Grady had just jumped in and kicked the elected negotiating team out, which didn't sound like it was going anywhere good. Agreed that it'd be tough for UCU to keep the strikes up, though.
 
hitmouse said:
Am I right in thinking that this pause in action will go right up to the end of the UNISON mandate?
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Yeah, for many of us our mandates run out on 25th Feb; not sure about those who won on reballots, though.

Far as I can tell, though, doesn't stop us from balloting again after those two weeks of 'pause'.
 
Lord Camomile said:
Yeah, for many of us our mandates run out on 25th Feb; not sure about those who won on reballots, though.

Far as I can tell, though, doesn't stop us from balloting again after those two weeks of 'pause'.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think the reballotees are an exception, but there weren't many of those.
Speaking of reballoting, sounds like it's gone reasonably well in the NHS:
www.unison.org.uk

NHS dispute widens to cover most parts of England | News, Press release | News | UNISON National

Staff at further ambulance services and health trusts vote to strike
www.unison.org.uk www.unison.org.uk
 
Lord Camomile said:
Yeah, not gonna lie, from a purely selfish POV I'd be quite glad to have a two week respite from action.

But, on the more ideological side, honestly not sure how to interpret this'un. Concerningly little about base pay, but "a revised/refreshed pay spine" might do something there? Equally, could do next to nothing.

:confused:
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If it doesn’t sort out or at least halve the loss of pay from 2011 its not good enough imo.

Without knowing the details it feels like a stitch up at the moment.
 
Genuine question as trying to figure this out.

Instinctively it does feel that, at the very least, unions are conceding more than employers by calling off strikes, as it's generally agreed that is one of their main sources of bargaining power.

But, assuming the unions can simply call further action after the 'pause' if talks/offers aren't to their liking, what actually is it they're conceding/losing by agreeing to the pause?

I see a lot of talk of "keep the pressure on", but can't we just reapply the pressure if the employers don't concede enough ground?
 
There appears to be a lot of criticism on Twitter of the UCU announcement. The two key arguments being advanced are: the lack of consultation with stewards and members before the decision to suspend was taken and secondly, the scant details on what is actually concretely on the table. Others on here will know better than me, quite clearly UCU activists for a start, and I can see a) why the details can’t be made public yet and b) why some might see things more positively (if only because of the breather). What I will say is that a victory for the UCU would be significant for others in dispute and a major problem for the Tories in holding the line elsewhere (especially with the RMT and CWU recent announcements). Let’s hope the leadership have called this one right, but hacking off a section of your stewards by not consulting is always going to be counter productive and disappointing for a putative left leadership
 
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Lord Camomile said:
Genuine question as trying to figure this out.

Instinctively it does feel that, at the very least, unions are conceding more than employers by calling off strikes, as it's generally agreed that is one of their main sources of bargaining power.

But, assuming the unions can simply call further action after the 'pause' if talks/offers aren't to their liking, what actually is it they're conceding/losing by agreeing to the pause?

I see a lot of talk of "keep the pressure on", but can't we just reapply the pressure if the employers don't concede enough ground?
Click to expand...

If a union builds up the workers to take strike action, and then calls the strike off easily, it can be very hard to get people to strike again. Even more so if this happens more than once. And that's leaving aside the aspect that employers use getting strikes called off by making promises that they then break for exactly that reason; to demoralise and weaken workers.
 
Lord Camomile said:
I see a lot of talk of "keep the pressure on", but can't we just reapply the pressure if the employers don't concede enough ground?
Click to expand...
In theory, but as LDC said once you lose momentum it can be hard to get people up for it again.

The way the 2018 USS dispute ended is a perfect example of how pausing resulted in a weak agreement that employers broke, and really the poor outcome to that fight has been with us ever since.

In the present case at the moment I'm kind of on the fence because I think the putting efforts into the re-ballot might be more effective and I'm not sure how strongly the strike would have continued to hold at my branch anyway.
Next week would have probably been ok but it was looking like it would be very tough the week after.


Of course there is the issue of how this decision was reached.
 
Also the six-month mandate thing is a real hard limit - UCU had their vote later so their mandate runs out a bit later than UNISON's does, but it's not going to last forever. Obviously they can and will reballot, but as above, it's harder to motivate people for a reballot if they feel they're being fucked around with. The impression I'm getting is that there's been an awful lot of top-down announcements in the dispute, Grady seems to assume that every UCU member is an avid user of the Elon Musk website and she can just communicate with them directly through that without needing to go through any kind of democratic structure. Was just chatting with someone on the UCU picket lines this week about the irony that she came into office as a result of the grassroots revolt against the old UCU leadership in 2018, saying it seems a bit Animal Farm, and of course that was before the latest announcement.
Oh, here's a statement from the Notes From Below/University Worker lot, they don't seem too impressed:
notesfrombelow.org

Let us be crystal clear: this is shit

by The University Worker // A response to calling off the strike action
notesfrombelow.org notesfrombelow.org
 
hitmouse said:
Grady seems to assume that every UCU member is an avid user of the Elon Musk website and she can just communicate with them directly through that without needing to go through any kind of democratic structure. Was just chatting with someone on the UCU picket lines this week about the irony that she came into office as a result of the grassroots revolt against the old UCU leadership in 2018,
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Yep. There is a definite issue there, even when I'm am more sympathetic to her political position than that of those that disagree with her the way she has gone about rushing stuff through, often by social media is shit
 
Yeah, I do think that paying attention to what's going on in the UCU is really important for anyone who's broadly in favour of seeing the current strikewave escalating - going beyond just slogans and things, it was a real example of a union trying to take a really ambitious amount of action, and I think we owe it to ourselves to look at the difficulties it's had taking the membership along with it, if that makes sense.
 
Yeah, can definitely understand that aspect of it (while also acknowledging that there's something of an inherent tension between democracy and speed, and people will always be pissed if either are sacrificed for the other in a way they don't like!).

Can certainly see the loss of momentum/energy argument; again, have seen it at a branch level, too. Again, though, can also see the argument for a 'pause' giving time to regroup and refresh for members, too.

Likewise the whole "being demoralised by broken promises" thing. I get it, but personally if an employer promises something then reneges, or waters it down, that just pisses me off even more! And again, at branch level have seen that from members - something is announced, when it actually hits reality it's not what members were expecting, righteous indignation ensues :D

But, eh, have seen it go the other way too.

Fuck it, very clearly I really dunno on this one.
 
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