Rail union RMT Mitie station and accommodation cleaners on the Merseyrail Contract are taking strike action and demonstrating in support of pay justice tomorrow – Friday 23rd July.
The demonstration, involving the cleaners and their supporters, will be outside Mitie and Merseyrail’s Liverpool Headquarters at Rail House, Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool L1 1JF at 8am on Friday 23rd July.
The cleaners voted by a massive majority for action over the offer of a pitiful increase in their poverty pay rates which would have still left them far short of the Real Living Wage and the absolute minimum of £10 an hour which RMT is campaigning for as recognition of these real heroes of the COVID pandemic who have worked throughout.
Mitie have raked in a fortune on Merseyside since they landed the lucrative Merseyrail franchise in 2016 and were recently involved in a boardroom pay scandal after their Chief Executive trousered a bonus package set to amount to over £5 million.
The cleaners are also protesting the imposition of punitive rosters and attacks on holiday pay. RMT has pointed out that a fraction of the company’s profits and bonuses would cover the cost of the Real Living Wage and decent working conditions.
Ever wondered what's involved in running - and winning! - a strike ballot? What conversations with workers during a strike ballot look like? And what to do if - sorry, when - the bosses go into full union busting mode?
In UVW, we've got years of experience in all of this, and we want to make sure we share that with as many members as possible.
With UVW potentially balloting several groups of workers in the coming months across different sectors including the care sector, charity sector, the NHS and more, including one group comprised of over 120 people, we want to offer you the training and support you need to get stuck in and help make sure we continue to grow, fight, win and win bigger!
If this sound like something for you, then register your interest by filling in this form.
Reducing the job cuts from 47 to 2 is solid progress already, and good on them for refusing to be bought off.UCU members at the University of Liverpool are fighting off compulsory redundancies. There were originally 47 staff at risk of redundancy. Through sustained industrial action, we have brought that number down to 2 jobs.
We will be on strike to stop the job cuts Wednesday 4th - Saturday 14th August. We invite you to join us for a mass protest on campus on Monday 9th August - the day before A-Level Results Day.
Help us to show university managers that the only acceptable number of compulsory redundancies is zero.
Please bring union banners, home made placards, picketing pets, and plenty of friends and colleagues. Share this event to spread the word.
Unity is strength!
Throughout the pandemic care and support workers have been at the frontline. Many of us have worked gruelling hours to cover staff shortages. Government policy allowed Covid-19 to run rampant through our care homes while we weren’t given adequate PPE to protect ourselves and our service users. Hundreds of us made the ultimate sacrifice and lost our lives from a virus we contracted at our workplaces.
Despite our commitment to a job that we love, 18 months from the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis we are still struggling with a lack of sick pay, poverty wages and empty promises. We’ve faced setbacks to our already struggling sector including the right to minimum wage on sleep in shifts and mandatory vaccinations. We want change. It’s time for care workers to clap back.
We are calling for a national demonstration during Professional Care Workers Week. We are a skilled workforce and our wages should reflect that. We are fighting for £15 per hour and decent working conditions.
If you are a care worker, belong to a trade union, or just believe that care workers deserve better join us on September 4th.
Time and locations to be announced shortly.
London Event - https://www.facebook.com/events/152081770374053?ref=newsfeed
Manchester Event - https://www.facebook.com/events/2755480941409413?ref=newsfeed
Newcastle Event - [TBC]
Preston Event - [TBC]
Biomedical scientists at a Lancashire NHS trust will strike until the middle of November in an upgrading pay row, as the bosses drag their feet over holding constructive talks, Unite the union said today (Friday 13 August).
The 21 biomedical scientists at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust were on strike between 31 May and 28 July – and are set to resume strike action on Friday 20 August which will then run through until Thursday 11 November. At five-and-half months this would be one of the longest-running industrial disputes currently in the UK.
Unite said that it had asked for a meeting with the trust by 30 July, but these talks will now take place on Thursday 9 September which the union said was clear evidence of the management’s lack of interest in resolving this dispute.
Unite said that the trust management was more intent on spending tens of thousands of pounds on breaking the dispute than honouring the 2019 pay upgrade deal that they originally agreed to.
After a week of industrial action, workers at Just Ask remain determined to win. Planning more campaign activities next week, ending in a large public protest on bank holiday monday.
The strike is over 6 issues, the key ones being possible staffing cuts later this year and winning the same sick pay as staff who are directly employed by the Royal Parks.
People can support the Just Ask strikers by supporting any of the below events, or contributing to their strike fund.
Monday, 23 August: Public leafletting 10am Speaker's Corner Hyde Park.
Wednesday, 25 August: Public Leafletting 10am location to be decided.
Friday, 27 August: Public protest 10am, location to be decided.
Monday, 30 August: Mass protest: 11:30am, Speaker's Corner Hyde Park.