Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Strike!

mk12 said:
I understand the tactics behind it, but if it does go ahead do you think they'll get much sympathy from ordinary Londoners? Is that even a consideration in this?
Click to expand...
do you think they should not strike incase they upset anyone then? :(
 
elsewhere

City of London Corporation Cleaners say: Occupy Guildhall!

Friday 23rd December, 6am onwards

The Guildhall

London

EC2V 7HH

Cleaners staging sit in at Corporation of London’s Guildhall over abuse of
women!

Cleaners are staging a sit in at the Corporation of London’s Guildhall in
protest at the inadequate response of their employer, the contractor Sodexo
over the abusive treatment of women employees.

The cleaners who are organised by the independent workers union, the
Industrial Workers of the World say their action comes after a growing
frustration with Sodexo (and their predecessor Ocean) following
persistent complaints regarding the conduct of certain members of the
management team at Guildhall. Repeatedly complaints have been raised with
respect to varying degrees of the mistreatment especially women, including
extreme acts such as bullying, confinement of individuals, intimidation and
assault.

The cleaners say the last straw was an incident involving a manager and one
of the union representatives on Monday 21 November. The rep Isabel Martin
was followed to a room in the basement of Guildhall, where she was blocked
from leaving with the door closed, then it is alleged a
male supervisor subjected her to an outburst of aggression and intimidating
behaviour, the terrified women felt was under threat of real physical
violence.

The IWW London Regional Secretary Chris Ford states that ‘the union has
raised concerns and complaints of the treatment of employees on enough
previous occasions with the employers to warrant sufficient preventative
measures to safeguard the safety employees and to ensure no further
mistreatment may occur. In the summer a mass meeting of cleaners had called
for the removal of those managers responsible for ill-treatment of
workers.’ The last incident the IWW insists could have been avoided if the
concerns of workers were respected and acted upon beforehand. One cleaner
stated: ‘These big companies need to put the safety of the workers before
the reputation of the City of London
Corporation’.

The union feels Sodexo have dragged their feet over this incident – they
raised a complaint in letters of 22/11/2011 and 29/11/2011 but it took
twenty days before the women worker was formally interviewed. Her
complaint of such a serious matter has been treated as a mere grievance.

For the last two days a number of workers have refused to undertake their
cleaning duties and are staging a sit in at the reception of the
Guildhall. They are demanding robust action that can protect women workers
from such ill-treatment occurring again.
Click to expand...


http://london.indymedia.org/articles/11349
 
mk12 said:
I understand the tactics behind it, but if it does go ahead do you think they'll get much sympathy from ordinary Londoners? Is that even a consideration in this?
Click to expand...

Going on the actual amount of sympathy they got last time they struck (compared to what the media claimed they'd get), I think you need to prepare yourself for a surprise.
 
Some facts and figures:
Why you should reject the pensions deal - the facts for workers across the public sector:
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/13377
  • When Lib Dem minister Danny Alexander put the government's pensions proposals to parliament on 20 December he said clearly that the government had achieved all its "savings goals" and would save tens of billions of pounds. That money is being stolen from public sector workers' pensions.
  • There is no increase in the 'cost ceiling'. This means that even where there have been some small improvements for some workers' accrual rates (the rate per year at which pension benefits are built up) they are being paid for by cuts in the pensions of other workers in the same scheme.
  • The amount that workers will have to pay into their pensions will still increase for all public sector pension schemes, by an average of 3.2% of salary, phased in over three years. This means that someone earning £25,000 will have to pay £800 a year more - effectively an immediate £800 per year pay cut! In health, the leadership of UNISON is claiming it has won a concession because those earning less than £26,000 will not have to pay more into their pensions for one year. However, even this puny concession is being paid for by higher paid public sector workers having to pay more.
  • The 'offer' ties retirement age to state pension age. This means that anyone born on or after 6 April 1960 but before 6 April 1961 will retire at between 66 and 67 years old. People born after 6 April 1961 will not get to retire until they are 67 or older.
  • Pensions will be linked to the CPI rather than the RPI inflation index. This will mean that over an average 20-year retirement, pensions will be worth up to 20% less.
  • In local government the government has agreed to delay implementing these attacks by a year, until 2014, but only on the basis of the unions signing up now to misery a year down the line.
  • This attack is not about the cost of the schemes, but about the government's attempts to make public sector workers pay for a crisis they didn't create!
 
mk12 said:
On a related note, I see the Tube Drivers are striking on Boxing Day. Are they deliberately trying to piss the public off?
Click to expand...
It's a great day to strike - most people are off work - those that are can get buses - they'd piss more people off if it was a really busy day - Londoners can get buses and trains (?) that day , it won't be impossible to get around - traffic is light - no congestion zone charge
 
mk12 said:
I understand the tactics behind it, but if it does go ahead do you think they'll get much sympathy from ordinary Londoners? Is that even a consideration in this?
Click to expand...
no, and nor should it be. ALL strikes cause at least a measure of inconvenience to someone, somewhere, or else they are useless. no-one ever got anywhere by being too scared of causing offence
 
PCS Left Unity National Committee's invitation to the 7th January conference:

DEFEND PENSIONS - ESCALATE ACTION

NAME DAY FOR NATIONAL STRIKE

Organising Conference Saturday: Friends Meeting House (opp. Euston Station) 7th January 2012 11am - 4pm

Chair: Janice Godrich PCS President

Speakers:

Mark Serwotka PCS General Secretary

John McDonnell MP

Kevin Courtney DGS NUT (personal capacity)

Roger Bannister UNISON NEC (personal capacity)

Mark Campbell UCU NEC (personal capacity)

Zita Holbourne BARAC

Kevin Donnelly Unite United Left

The PCS Left Unity National Committee invites all activists from all unions to an organising conference on the 7th of January to debate how we can build the campaign to defend our pensions and fight the cuts and prevent any unacceptable "deal" that makes us work longer, pay more and get less.
This will be an organising conference, not just a debating forum. It is intended to arm activists with the issues so they can go back to their workplaces and into their unions in order to build a campaign that will secure justice on pensions.
To cover costs there will be a registration fee of £5 for waged delegates.
FAIR PENSIONS FOR ALL - STOP THE CUTS - NO PRIVATISATION
 
Public sector pensions offer rejected by Unite
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16431284

"In what will be seen as a significant set-back for the government, Unite reps in the NHS have voted unanimously to reject the Coalition’s latest proposals on pension reform."

This is important and a good start to the new year :)

You don't have to be pessimistic William - Its far from over :)

(Ooops - post repeat.... thanks Fed for getting this info out)
 
I wonder how the doctors will react

The British Medical Association decided yesterday to ballot its 130,000 doctors and medical students on whether the offer is acceptable and, if not, whether they would be prepared to take action.
Click to expand...
 
Ambulance workers vote for action to defend pensions
NHS ambulanceworkers in the NHS have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action short of strike action in defence of their pensions.
Unison called a seperate ballot for ambulance workers in order that those who would work normally by providing emergency cover during strikes could take part in the campaign to preserve pensions.

The result was 84% voted in favour (5,233 votes cast: 4,408 in favour, 816 against).

This opens the way for a work-to-rule by ambulance staff whilst preserving life-saving emergency cover.
The NHSrelies on paramedics and ambulance technicians to treat many patients for minor injuries or to divert them for treatment at non-emergency walk-in centres and so relieve the stress on hospital accident and emergency departments.
The prospect is that during action 'short of strike' action, ambulance staff will work to rule for instance by transporting all patients to hospital, thereby overwhelming accident & emergency centres.
 
Did you go to the PCS Left unity rally Dennisr? Didn't see u. I do worry about UNISON's position - being decided on Tuesday, no?
 
articul8 said:
Did you go to the PCS Left unity rally Dennisr? Didn't see u. I do worry about UNISON's position - being decided on Tuesday, no?
Click to expand...

Sorry I missed you fella (I left a bit early in any case - everyday stuff that needed sorting out). Not a bad turnout given the short notice and time of the year - around 500. Yep, the UNISON decision is critical to how the pensions dispute develops and does not look exactly good - :) I am no expert but my impression is that, if preasure is applied appropriately, (ie not by some of the more 'out there' demands on both the right and on this conference raised by some of those dafter poseurs - the 'Jeremy's and 'Candy's yesterday) section votes can still be turned. We have seen the North West and the Manchester UNISON blocs seemingly going against their own traditional right-wing supporting position. And that's two big areas so if significent. With the added preasure of he recent UNITE section votes. I guess the union left is having to play their own version of the divide and rule game against the union right at the moment. Lets hope it gets the results we all need. Noticed CPB members at the meeting yesterday which is interesting.

Serwotka's introductory speech:

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/13439/08-01-2012/mark-serwotka-speaking
 
I could only stay for the opening session - written up here

UNISON leadership definitely in a tight spot - maximum pressure necessary. CPB has quite a presence in UNISON group execs, no?
 
Can someone please explain to me why UNISON need pressure applied to reject the Governments offer at all, and why are they not simply backing and supporting their own members?
 
mwgdrwg said:
Can someone please explain to me why UNISON need pressure applied to reject the Governments offer at all, and why are they not simply backing and supporting their own members?
Click to expand...

Cos Dave Prentis, like Brendan Barber, is only interested in getting Labour back in power in 2015. They don't want them earlier because they are happy to let the tories/lib dems fuck up the economy first, helping labour get a larger majority. Both, I would think, are expecting peerages in the end.
So they don't want any opposition to be too effective and they want their members to be pissed off at the tories for slashing their pensions, so they'll vote labour and encourage others to in 2015.
(imo obviously)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

YouSir
Strike Funds
Replies
4
Views
472
hitmouse
hitmouse
PR1Berske
Strike breaking law
2 3 4
Replies
115
Views
5K
PR1Berske
PR1Berske
girasol
  • Poll
Should there be an energy/fuel payment strike in the UK?
2
Replies
45
Views
2K
8ball
8ball
cupid_stunt
Is the Adur & Worthing bin strike basically a dispute between UNISON and the GMB?
Replies
16
Views
741
cupid_stunt
cupid_stunt
Brixton Hatter
Climate Strike / School Strike for Climate
Replies
26
Views
2K
Brixton Hatter
Brixton Hatter
Back
Top Bottom