Strike!

[The39thStep]

Unison are balloting now , just voted yes and sent the form back. The pay offer is derisory to say the least but most people I know are more worried about redundancies . However this could be one of those calms before the storm periods where members say what the fuck lets have a go?

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Our GMB rep says July 10th possible token 1 day strike in public sector with unison and unite.

As a GMB rep I can confirm that. Ballot goes live (for us down here) next week. Unison, Unite & NUT to follow.

ALL OUT!

 

[HST]

As a GMB rep I can confirm that. Ballot goes live (for us down here) next week. Unison, Unite & NUT to follow.

ALL OUT!

PCS balloting next week - looking at 10 July.

Solidarity forever.

 

[krink]

When we were talking about July 10th at work I found out that for the first time in years I wasn't the only person who wanted indefinite strike action. People were actually pissed off about the 1 day strike because they felt it wasn't enough.

 

[Onket]

Our branches' turnout on the indicative ballot was poor. I hope the turnout for the actual ballot is much better.

As a steward/rep you can only do so much, mainly because ballots go to home addresses.

 

[krink]

years ago we did the voting at work. we used to go round with the box! much better turnout then

 

[ddraig]

i would love to do that!

 

[krink]

it's a big difference now - i worked at my current job 12 years or so, never been approached by any union reps.

 

[Lo Siento.]

Just got back from the Hackney Community College demo, sounds like they're planning to strike soon against some management bullshit that's every bit as bad as what's happening at Lambeth College. The bosses have had £1.5m taken out of their budget, and trying to recover it by cutting classes (particularly ESOL) and bringing in mostly pointless but well-paying compulsory Job Centre courses (much of it including totally pointless ESOL short courses). The staff meanwhile face some redundancies and zero hour contracts (because the JC work is variable demand short courses).

 

[J Ed]

years ago we did the voting at work. we used to go round with the box! much better turnout then

There is a reason they changed the law on this

 

[Onket]

years ago we did the voting at work. we used to go round with the box! much better turnout then

i would love to do that!

There is a reason they changed the law on this

Can still do it for indicative ballots. We did it the one before this one, maybe 12 months or less ago.

Doesn't test your mailing systems or the quality of the data on your membership system though. Not ideal when it comes to the actual ballot and you find out things don't work.

 

[krink]

Just had an email gone round the council saying no leave can be authorised for 10th July. Looks like the strike might be on!

 

[comrade spurski]

was in Nalgo and then Unison until 2010 and in all that time I never got a call during a ballot asking me to vote yes ... am in unite and got both my ballot paper and a phone call today ... was really impressed they are taking it seriously

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Is curbing strike action preparing the ground for battles to come?
http://www.unionjunction.co.uk/uncategorized/curbing-strike-action-preparing-ground-battles-come/

 

[krink]

got my gmb ballot today. hope the weather is nice

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Anyone in the RMT shed any more light on this - http://union-news.co.uk/2014/06/bosses-threaten-sack-hundreds-rmt-members-strike-today/ ?

 

[treelover]

Coalition faces huge strike as biggest unions ballot council workers
Unison, GMB and Unite ballot hundreds of thousands of workers in England and Wales in protest at offer worth 1% for most staff

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/22/coalition-huge-strike-unions-council-workers

 

[treelover]

Unison leader Dave Prentis said the action could be bigger than the 1926 general strike if workers voted for it.

If they voted for it.

 

[leyton96]

Unison Local government and schools support staff vote for strike action:
http://www.unison.org.uk/media-centre/local-government-workers-vote-for-strike-action

 

[belboid]

only 85,000 votes tho, seems a desperately low turnout

 

[leyton96]

only 85,000 votes tho, seems a desperately low turnout

Aye, it's not great. The whole union wasn't balloted though. I'd estimate around 600,000 were in the ballot so that's about 14% turn out, about similar to a local election turn out.
That said it shows that you can't keep on suppressing initiative from the base and then turn around and expect a response from the members when you need something done.

 

[Onket]

I'm sure they just said 58% yes vote by Unison members on Channel 4 news.

58%! That's dire.

 

[ddraig]

Council and school support workers vote to strike

Local government and school support workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have voted to strike over pay, public service union Unison has said. The union said local government workers and school support staff had been subject to a three-year pay freeze and had had their pay reduced by 20% since the coalition came to power in 2010. An LGA spokesman said: "This strike will not change the pay offer we have made, but it will mean those who take part lose a day's pay."

BBC News Daily Express, Page: 2 Financial Times, Page: 4 Daily Mirror, Page: 14 Independent i, Page: 11 Yorkshire Post, Page: 4

 

[The39thStep]

I'm sure they just said 58% yes vote by Unison members on Channel 4 news.

58%! That's dire.

tbh its quite a suprise that it was that high.Most members have had three years of redundancies and restructuring so although I voted yes I thought the yes vote would be around 55% if that.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Strike on the 10th of July then.

http://www.unison.org.uk/news/local-government-strike-date-sent-for-10-july

 

[DotCommunist]

another 1 day set piece, still expect the press to go into full 'dead are unburied' mode

 

[krink]

Although the turnout and yes votes are very low im hoping not too many will cross the lines; one day strikes may be a waste of time but its still more fun than being at work.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

GMB ballot result on the 27th.

I'm hoping it's a massive percentage.

 

[ddraig]

me too, will be out even tho on secondment and working from home!

 

[Onket]

tbh its quite a suprise that it was that high.Most members have had three years of redundancies and restructuring so although I voted yes I thought the yes vote would be around 55% if that.

I thought the turnout would be low but the 'yes' vote would be higher. Pessimism, followed by optimism, maybe.